Bret Steven Taylor (born 1980) is an American computer programmer and entrepreneur. He led the team that co-created Google Maps, served as chief technology officer (CTO) of Facebook (now Meta Platforms), chairman of Twitter, Inc.'s board of directors prior to its acquisition by Elon Musk, and co-CEO of Salesforce alongside cofounder Marc Benioff. Taylor also co-founded FriendFeed and created the collaborative productivity software Quip. He is the cofounder of the AI startup Sierra, chairman of OpenAI, and a board member of Shopify.
Taylor's career spans major technology companies and startups, with a consistent focus on product development and enterprise software. His roles have placed him at the center of significant moments in the tech industry, from the early days of consumer internet services to the current wave of generative AI.
Early life and education
Bret Taylor was born in Oakland, California, in 1980, and grew up primarily in the East Bay. He graduated from Acalanes High School in Lafayette, California, in 1998. Taylor attended Stanford University, where he received his bachelor's and master's degrees in computer science in 2002 and 2003, respectively. His parents and older sister also attended Stanford.
Career at Google and FriendFeed
In 2003, Taylor was hired by Marissa Mayer as an associate product manager intern at Google. He led the team working on features such as Search by Location and Google Local, which were predecessors to Google Maps. This early work helped establish Google's mapping and local search capabilities.
Taylor left Google in June 2007 to join venture capital firm Benchmark Capital as an entrepreneur-in-residence. There, he and several former Google employees founded the social network website FriendFeed. Taylor served as CEO until August 2009, when FriendFeed was acquired by Facebook Inc. (now Meta Platforms) for an estimated $50 million. The acquisition led to Facebook adopting the "Like" button from FriendFeed, a feature that became central to the platform's social interactions.
Facebook CTO and Quip
After the FriendFeed acquisition, Taylor joined Facebook and became its CTO in 2010. In this role, he oversaw the company's technical strategy and product development during a period of rapid growth.
In 2012, Taylor left Facebook to found Quip, a collaborative productivity software designed to compete with Google Docs. Quip combined word processing, spreadsheets, and messaging in a single platform. Salesforce acquired Quip in 2016, integrating it into its enterprise offerings.
Salesforce and Twitter
In 2016, Twitter, Inc. announced Taylor's appointment to its board of directors. He became chairman of the company in 2021, a position he held until the entire board was dissolved following Twitter's acquisition by Elon Musk in October 2022.
In 2017, Taylor became chief product officer at Salesforce. He was named president and chief operating officer two years later. As COO, Taylor led Salesforce's acquisition of Slack Technologies, which closed in 2021. He also led the creation of Customer 360, a system designed to unify customer data across Salesforce's products, and started an associate product manager program at the company. In November 2021, Taylor was named vice chair and co-CEO at Salesforce. On November 30, 2022, it was announced that Taylor would step down as co-CEO and vice chair at the end of January 2023.
AI ventures and later career
In February 2023, Taylor co-founded Sierra, an enterprise-focused artificial intelligence startup, along with former Google executive Clay Bavor. Sierra develops AI-powered customer service agents for businesses, leveraging large language models to handle complex interactions.
In November 2023, Taylor replaced Greg Brockman as chairman of OpenAI following the reconstitution of its board after Sam Altman was briefly ousted and reinstated as CEO. He has been on the board of Shopify since 2023.
In November 2025, Forbes recognized Taylor as a billionaire, primarily due to his roughly 25% stake in Sierra, which was valued at $10 billion at the time. The following month, he acquired an approximately 1% non-controlling minority ownership stake in the San Francisco 49ers.
Personal life
Taylor married Karen Padham in 2006, whom he met while working at Google. The couple has three children. Taylor has been called the "Forrest Gump of Silicon Valley" for his presence at numerous landmark moments in the tech industry.