About Kira

Kira Makagon is a successful serial entrepreneur and technology industry leader.

A graduate of UC Berkeley in computer science and Haas School of Business, Kira enjoys sharing the lessons she's learned from being a veteran “only woman in the room.” She got her start as the only child of Ukrainian Jewish immigrants who landed in San Francisco when she was a teenager and believed in giving their daughter a gender-neutral start in life. An avid writer and speaker, Kira is a role model for young women, especially, encouraging them to aim for leadership roles in the technology industry. She enjoys working with entrepreneurs and serves as an advisor to early-stage companies, including Illuminate Ventures and Sedia, is part of the CIO councils for Mayfield Fund and for Sierra Ventures. Kira is honored to serve on the board of Calix (CALX :NYSE) as well.

Currently, as Chief of Innovation at RingCentral, Kira leads product, engineering, and operations employees spread across four continents. Before RingCentral, she co-founded several technology companies, including Octane (acquired by E.piphany NASDAQ: EPNY) for $3.2 billion, and RedAril (acquired by Hearst). She has also participated in two successful IPOs: Scopus (NASDAQ: SCOP) and RingCentral (NYSE: RNG).

Kira's honors and awards include: 2015 and 2016 Most Influential Women in Business by the San Francisco Business Times, 2015 Women of Influence by the Silicon Valley Business Journal, 2015 Golden Bridge Business and Innovation Awards, 2016 Silver Stevie Award for Female Executive of the Year, 2018 Innovation Award for Team Collaboration by Aragon Research, 2018 San Francisco Business Times Forever Influential Honor Roll, 2019 Women World Awards Gold Winner for Excellence in Industry, Woman of the Year (Cloud Computing/SaaS/Internet), and 2020 Silver Stevie Award for Most Innovative Woman of the Year - Technology.

Kira lives in Silicon Valley and enjoys skiing, swimming, and long walks with her husband in her free time.