Ann Mei Chang

Business leader, Engineer, Public servant, Social entrepreneur, Technologist, World traveler

Ann Mei Chang served as Chief Innovation Officer and the first Executive Director of the U.S. Global Development Lab at USAID. The Lab is the newest bureau at USAID and leverages 21st Century advances in technology and innovation to accelerate the impact and scale of global development. Previously, Ann Mei was the Chief Innovation Officer at Mercy Corps and served as the Senior Advisor for Women and Technology in the Secretary’s Office of Global Women’s Issues at the U.S. Department of State. Prior to her pivot to the public sector, Ann Mei had over twenty years of experience at leading Silicon Valley companies including Google, Apple, Intuit, and some startups. Most recently, she was as a Senior Engineering Director at Google, where she led worldwide engineering for mobile applications and services, delivering 20x growth to $1B in annual revenues in just 3 years. Ann Mei currently serves on the boards of BRAC USA and IREX, is a nonresident fellow in the Global Economy and Development Program at the Brookings Institution, and is a member of the 2011 class of Henry Crown Fellows at the Aspen Institute. She holds a BS degree in Computer Science from Stanford University and was recognized as one of the Women In the World: 125 Women of Impact for 2013 by Newsweek/The Daily Beast.

Modern innovation principles such as rapid prototyping, data-driven feedback loops, and sustainable business models can drive dramatically greater social impact and scale.

Developing Countries, global development, Lean Startup, mobile, women and technology