Brian Chesky is the co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Airbnb and sets the vision and strategy for the company. In 2007, Brian and Joe Gebbia became Airbnb’s first hosts. Since then, Brian has overseen Airbnb’s growth to become a community of over four million hosts who have welcomed more than 800 million guests across 220+ countries and regions.

A graduate from the Rhode Island School of Design, Brian has embedded his creative roots in Airbnb’s culture, product and community. This design-driven approach has enabled a system of trust that allows strangers to live together, and created a unique business model that facilitates connection and belonging.

Brian is a signatory to the Giving Pledge and has committed to donating the net proceeds of his CEO equity compensation to community, philanthropic and charitable causes. Originally from Niskayuna, New York, Brian is an Airbnb Experience host in San Francisco.

Ms. Ahrendts joined our board of directors in May 2019. Ms. Ahrendts served as Senior Vice President, Retail at Apple Inc. (“Apple”), a publicly-held technology company, from May 2014 to May 2019. Prior to joining Apple, Ms. Ahrendts served as a director and Chief Executive Officer of Burberry plc, a global luxury fashion company, from July 2006 to April 2014. Ms. Ahrendts also previously served as Executive Vice President at Liz Claiborne Inc. and President of Donna Karan International, both then publicly-held global fashion companies. Ms. Ahrendts has served as a director of the Ralph Lauren Corporation, a publicly-held fashion company, since August 2018. Ms. Ahrendts has served as a director of WPP plc, a publicly-held creative transformation company with expertise in communications, experience, commerce and technology, since June of 2020. Ms. Ahrendts also serves on non-profits boards, including Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford, The HOW Institute for Society, and Charity: Water. Ms. Ahrendts received a Bachelor of Arts in Marketing and Merchandising from Ball State University.

Ms. Ahuja joined our board of directors in December 2021. Ms. Ahuja is Block’s Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer (NYSE: SQ). Block has four ecosystems: Square, which helps entrepreneurs start, run, and grow their business, Cash App, which allows individuals to send, spend, invest and save money, TIDAL, the global music and entertainment platform, and TBD, a platform for open-source financial services dedicated to cryptocurrency and the blockchain. Ms. Ahuja is also Chairperson of Block’s industrial bank Square Financial Services, which is an independently governed subsidiary of Block. Ms. Ahuja was previously the CFO of Blizzard Entertainment, a leading global developer and publisher of interactive software products and entertainment content, a division of Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ: ATVI). Ms. Ahuja was with Activision Blizzard for over eight years in a number of finance and strategy roles across the company, including SVP of Investor Relations, VP of Finance and Operations, and VP of Strategy and Business Development. Prior to Activision Blizzard, she held various roles at Fox Networks Group, the Walt Disney Company’s Strategic Planning group, and Morgan Stanley’s Technology Investment Banking Division. She received her M.B.A. from Harvard Business School and her A.B. from Duke University.

Nathan (Nate) Blecharczyk is the co-founder of Airbnb and Chief Strategy Officer. Nate plays a leading role in driving key strategic initiatives across the global business, particularly those which require a holistic understanding of the business, public policy, product, data, and Airbnb’s long-term stakeholder interests.

Nate has led the creation of Airbnb’s engineering, data science, payments, and performance marketing teams. More recently, he oversaw the creation of the Airbnb City Portal, an industry-first software solution that addresses the needs of cities relating to short-term rentals; Airbnb’s reservation screening technology, to help identify potentially high-risk reservations and prevent those users from taking advantage of our platform; and the launch of Airbnb-friendly apartments, which allows renters to benefit from hosting.

Nate holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Computer Science from Harvard University. Together with his wife Elizabeth, he enjoys being an active Airbnb Host and has welcomed hundreds of guests since Airbnb launched. Nate and Elizabeth are signatories to the Giving Pledge.

Mr. Chenault joined our board of directors in January 2018. Since February 2018, Mr. Chenault has served as Chairman and Managing Director of General Catalyst, a venture capital firm. Mr. Chenault served as Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of American Express Company, a publicly- held diversified financial services company, from April 2001 through January 2018. Prior to that, he held roles of increasing responsibility at American Express Company, including President of the U.S. division of American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. in 1993, Vice Chairman of the American Express Company in 1995 and President and Chief Operating Officer in 1997. Mr. Chenault has served on the board of directors of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., a publicly-held multinational conglomerate holding company, since May 2020. Mr. Chenault also served on the board of directors of International Business Machines Corporation, a publicly-held multinational technology company, from October 1998 to February 2019, The Procter & Gamble Company, a publicly-held global consumer goods company, from April 2008 to February 2019, and Facebook, Inc., a publicly-held global technology company, from February 2018 to May 2020. Mr. Chenault received a Bachelor of Arts in history from Bowdoin College and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School.

Joe Gebbia is the co-founder of Airbnb and Chairman of Airbnb.org, an independently operated 501(c)3. As a community-powered non-profit, Airbnb.org helps to connect those in crisis with places for them to stay as part of our emergency response efforts related to natural disasters, the COVID-19 pandemic, and global refugee crisis. 

Joe began his life as an artist and graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) where he earned dual degrees in Graphic Design and Industrial Design, and currently serves on the RISD Board of Trustees. Joe is an Airbnb.org host and signatory to the Giving Pledge.

Mr. Jordan joined our board of directors in August 2011. Mr. Jordan serves as the managing partner of Andreessen Horowitz, a venture capital firm, which he joined as a general partner in July 2011. Prior to that, Mr. Jordan served as the Chief Executive Officer of OpenTable, Inc., the online restaurant-reservation service company, from 2007 to 2011. From 2004 to 2006, Mr. Jordan served as President of PayPal, Inc., a digital payments company, which was then owned by eBay, Inc. For five years prior to that, Mr. Jordan served as Senior Vice President and General Manager for eBay North America. From 1998 to 1999, Mr. Jordan served as Chief Financial Officer for Hollywood Entertainment Corporation, a video rental company, and then President of its subsidiary, Reel.com. Previously, Mr. Jordan served in various capacities at The Walt Disney Company for eight years, most recently as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the Disney Store Worldwide. Before that he worked for The Boston Consulting Group. Mr. Jordan served as a member of the boards of directors of OpenTable, Inc. from 2007 until 2013, Pinterest, Inc. since 2011, and Accolade, Inc. since 2016. He is a member of the board of directors for several private companies including Maplebear Inc. (d/b/a Instacart) and OfferUp, Inc. Mr. Jordan received a Bachelor of Arts from Amherst College and a Master of Business Administration from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Mr. Lin joined our board of directors in November 2012. Since October 2010, Mr. Lin has been a partner at Sequoia Capital Operations LLC (“Sequoia”), a venture capital firm. He represents Sequoia on our board as well as several other privately-held companies, including DoorDash, a food-delivery and local logistics platform, since 2014, and Houzz Inc., an online home designs and furnishings platform, since 2011. From 1996 to 1998, he served as Vice President of Finance and Administration of LinkExchange, a banner advertising exchange acquired by Microsoft Corporation (“Microsoft”). From June 1999 to December 2014, he served as Co-Founder and General Manager at Venture Frogs, LLC, a seed fund that invested in companies such as Ask Jeeves, OpenTable, Inc., Tellme Networks, Inc., and Zappos.com Inc. (“Zappos”). From January 2001 to June 2005, he served as Vice President of Finance and Business Development of Tellme Networks, a voice recognition services and platform company acquired by Microsoft. From January 2005 to December 2010, he served as Chairman of the Board and Chief Operating Officer of Zappos, an online retailer acquired by Amazon.com, Inc. Mr. Lin holds a Bachelor of Arts in Applied Mathematics from Harvard University and a Master of Science in Statistics from Stanford University.

James is Senior Vice President at Google-Alphabet reporting to the CEO and responsible for Research, Technology & Society, including overseeing Google Research and Google Labs. He is focused on helping advance Google and Alphabet’s most ambitious foundational and applied innovations in computer science, including artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and science, and in areas that have potential for broad impact on people and society, all in support of Google's mission, responsibly.  He is Senior Partner emeritus of McKinsey & Company, and is Chair and director emeritus of the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI). At Mckinsey, he advised the chief executives of many of the world’s leading technology companies and he led MGI ’s research on technology, the economy, competitiveness, and other global economy trends.

Appointed by President Obama, he served as Vice Chair of the Global Development Council at the White House, and by Commerce Secretaries to the Digital Economy Board and the National Innovation Board. He currently serves as Vice Chair of the US National AI Advisory Committee which advises the President on AI and the National AI Initiative Office at the White House, and serves on the U.S. Secretary of State’s Foreign Affairs Policy Board. He serves on the boards of the Council on Foreign Relations, Hewlett and MacArthur Foundations.

He is a Visiting Professor at Oxford’s School of Government and a member of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine’s Committee on Responsible Computing. He has been elected a Distinguished Fellow of Stanford’s AI Institute, a Distinguished Fellow in Ethics in AI at Oxford, a Visiting Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and a life Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. A Rhodes Scholar, James has DPhil, MSc with distinction and MA from Oxford in AI and robotics, mathematics, and computer science, a BSc first class in electrical engineering from the University of Zimbabwe.