Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised Jul 16, 2026

Deb Liu

Deborah Liu is an American technology executive and the former CEO of genealogy company, Ancestry from 2021 to January 2025 Liu served on the board of Intuit and co-founded the nonprofit organisation Women in Product. She is the founder of the artificial intelligence startup Ember AI.

Last revised
Jul 16, 2026
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Deborah Liu
Born
United States
EducationDuke University (BSE)
Stanford Graduate School of Business
OccupationTechnology executive
Known forFormer CEO of Ancestry.com
Founder of Ember AI
Board member of
Intuit
Deb Liu in 2016

Deborah Liu is an American technology executive and the former CEO of genealogy company, Ancestry from 2021 to January 202512 Liu served on the board of Intuit3 and co-founded the nonprofit organisation Women in Product.456 She is the founder of the artificial intelligence startup Ember AI.7

Early life and education

Liu is of Chinese descent and her parents emigrated to the U.S. in the 1960s.8 She was raised in a small town in South Carolina.9 She is a graduate of Duke University (B.S.E in Civil Engineering) and Stanford Business School.10

Career

Liu was director of product for the end-to-end buyer experience at eBay and spearheaded the integration between eBay and PayPal.311 She was director of product marketing management and product management at PayPal.12

In 2009, she joined Facebook,13 where she worked on Facebook Credits and Facebook Platform14 and helped build their mobile app install ad business.15 In 2016, as VP of product development, she relaunched Facebook Marketplace816 and became VP of marketplace in 2017.17

After being at Facebook for 11 years, Liu joined Ancestry.com as its CEO March 1, 2021.18

She was included on Business Insider's list of "The Most Powerful Female Engineers"19 and PaymentsSource's list of "The Most Influential Women in Payments",20 and is a member of the Committee of 100.21

In August 2022, she published her first book "Take Back Your Power: 10 New Rules for Women at Work".8 Liu is a seed investor and advisor to startups.22

She stepped down as CEO of Ancestry in January 2025 following a diagnosis of breast cancer and to spend more time with her family.4

Following her departure from Ancestry, Liu founded the artificial intelligence startup Ember AI.7 She has also spoken publicly about the role of artificial intelligence in the workplace, highlighting disparities in AI adoption between men and women.723

References

References

  1. Ford, Brody; Chang, Emily (February 3, 2021). "Facebook Executive Deborah Liu Named CEO of Ancestry.com". Bloomberg News.
  2. "Our Team | Ancestry Corporate". Ancestry.com. Retrieved February 7, 2025.
  3. Intuit (July 20, 2017). "Intuit Appoints Deborah Liu to Board of Directors" (Press release) – via BusinessWire.
  4. Yip, Randall (December 22, 2025). "Loss, racism, and cancer can't stop CEO Deb Liu". AsAmNews. Retrieved March 30, 2026.
  5. "About Us – Board of Directors". Women in Product. Archived from the original on July 10, 2019. Retrieved February 11, 2021.
  6. Stanton, Zack (April 22, 2020). "'We wanted to be incredibly aggressive with this'". Politico.
  7. Yip, Randall (February 9, 2026). "AI startup founder warns women are falling behind in AI race". AsAmNews. Retrieved March 30, 2026.
  8. "Ancestry CEO: Being labeled 'the other' was my rocket fuel to succeed". msnbc.com. August 12, 2022. Retrieved November 11, 2022.
  9. Connley, Courtney (January 5, 2024). "Why Ancestry CEO Deborah Liu Believes Rejection Can Be a Gift". Chief. Retrieved March 31, 2024.
  10. "Facebook Platform, 10 years later: VP Deb Liu on the social network's expanding developer program". geekwire.com. July 26, 2017. Retrieved October 10, 2022.
  11. Olsen, Parmy (January 29, 2018). "Meet The Woman Building Facebook's eBay-Killer". Forbes.
  12. "Deborah Liu, director of product, Facebook platform at Facebook". businessinsider.com. Retrieved November 11, 2022.
  13. Deb Liu (November 14, 2017). "'Optimize for people and passion,' says Facebook's Deb Liu". The Lily (Washington Post) (Interview). Interviewed by The Lily and OK Real.
  14. Winn, Layne (October 15, 2019). "Founder of Facebook Marketplace Deb Liu shares how Sheryl Sandberg convinced her to join". ABC News.
  15. Lynley, Matthew (February 12, 2014). "Meet The Woman Behind One Of Facebook's Fastest-Growing And Most Lucrative New Businesses". BuzzFeed News.
  16. Thau, Barbara (December 27, 2018). "Facebook 'Marketplace' Executive Reveals Key Retail Trends For 2019". Forbes.
  17. "Facebook's Eddie O'Neil takes over Platform as Deb Liu grows Marketplace". techcrunch.com. September 13, 2017. Retrieved November 11, 2022.
  18. "Ancestry.com Taps Facebook Executive for CEO Role". Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute. February 4, 2021.
  19. Bort, Julie; Sandler, Rachel (June 21, 2018). "The 39 Most Powerful Female Engineers of 2018". Business Insider.
  20. "Deb Liu". wsj.com. Retrieved November 11, 2022.
  21. "Members - Committee of 100 - Deborah Liu". Committee of 100. Retrieved February 11, 2021.
  22. "How This Tech Leader Found Her Voice and Took the Reins of a Major Company". entrepreneur.com. August 19, 2022. Retrieved November 11, 2022.
  23. Kaplan, Ben (February 9, 2026). "AI Startup Founder Warns Women Falling Behind in AI Race". National Today. Retrieved March 30, 2026.