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Nicole Shanahan

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Nicole Shanahan
NationalityAmerican
Alma materSanta Clara University School of Law
Spouse
​
​
(m. 2018; div. 2023)​

Nicole Shanahan is an American entrepreneur, attorney, and political donor, based in the San Francisco Bay Area.[1][2]

She married Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, from 2018; they separated in 2021, and divorced in 2023.[1][2][3]

During the 2024 U.S. presidential election campaign, Shanahan gave $4 million to fund a Super Bowl ad in support of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the [[Conspiracy theories in United States politics|independent candidate for president.[4][5][6] She later emerged as a chief contender to be Kennedy's vice presidential running mate.[2][5]

Early life, education, and career

Shanahan grew up in Oakland, California.[7] In a 2023 interview with People magazine, Shanahan said that she had a "very hard" childhood marked by traumatic experiences; she described her father (who died in 2014) as a sufferer of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, and her mother was a Chinese immigrant who eventually became an accountant.[7]

Shanahan completed a bachelor's degree in Asian studies, economics, and Mandarin Chinese at the University of Puget Sound.[7] Before law school, she worked as a paralegal and patent specialist,[7][8] the latter role at defensive patent aggregator RPX Corp.[8]

Law and business career

Shanahan graduated from Santa Clara University School of Law in 2014.[9] While in law school, she was an exchange student at National University of Singapore.[10] She became interested in patent law; in law school after becoming a lawyer, she became the founder and CEO of a legal tech company, ClearAccessIP,[9] based in Palo Alto, California.[8] She sold the company to a competitor, IPwe, in 2020.[10][8]

She has spoken on the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on law and the legal profession.[11] She was a CodeX fellow at Stanford Law School in 2016.[9][12]

Shanahan was executive producer of the film Evolver in 2022 and the film Kiss The Ground in 2020.[13][14]

In 2023, Santa Clara University School of Law awarded Shanahan its Young Alumni Rising Star Award.[15]

Shanahan is a member of the board of Carbon Royalty Corp.[16] She invested in Linus Biotechnology, Inc. (LinusBio), a biotech firm, during a venturing funding round announced in January 2023.[17] In 2023, she joined the board of Extreme Tech Challenge.[18] She is the "Global Joy Officer" and a member of the board at the Sloomoo Institute.[19]

Charitable contributions

In 2018, she helped fund and launch the Center for Female Reproductive Longevity and Equality within the Buck Institute for Research on Aging.[20]

In 2019,[10] Shanahan established her private foundation, Bia-Echo.[21] In 2022, Shanahan's then-husband, Sergey Brin, donated at least $23 million in shares of Alphabet (Google's parent company) to Bia-Echo.[22] In 2019, Shanahan pledged to contribute $100 million over five years, mostly for research in reproductive longevity (programs that help women become pregnant later in life).[10][23] Other beneficiaries of the contributions include programs that aim to overhaul the criminal justice system and climate change,[23] as well as programs on nutrition and its link to fertility.[a]

In 2022, Shanahan gave $70 million to Blue Meridian Partners, which makes grants to nonprofits to help poverty.[26]

Political contributions and involvement

In the 2010s and 2020s, Shanahan made various contributions to left-leaning organizations and Democratic political candidates.[10] In 2020, Shanahan was a "major donor" for Measure J, a criminal justice reform referendum in Los Angeles County.[27]

During the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, Shanahan contributed $2,800 each to the campaigns of Marianne Williamson and Pete Buttigieg, and co-hosted a fundraiser for the latter.[21] After Joe Biden became the presumptive nominee, she supported the Biden residential campaign, contributing $25,000 to the Biden Victory Fund.[21][1]

Role in RFK Jr. campaign

In May 2023, when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was challenging Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination, Shanahan donated the maximum of $6,600 to Kennedy's campaign.[1] After RFK Jr. dropped out of the Democratic primaries in October 2024, instead announcing that he would run in the general election as an independent candidate, Shanahan said she was "incredibly disappointed" and would not support his run.[1] In early 2024, however, Shanahan reversed course, and donated $4 million to a super PAC to pay for a 30-second television Super Bowl ad, aired during Super Bowl LVIII, supporting the RFK Jr. campaign.[1] In addition to funding the ad's broadcast, Shanahan was also a "creative force" behind the ad,[2] the total cost of which was variously said to be $5 million[2] or (according to the super PAC's co-founder) $7 million.[1][28] Numerous Kennedy family members, who have criticized RFK Jr.'s promotion of conspiracy theories and have denounced his campaign, criticized the Super Bowl ad for re-using footage from a 1960 presidential campaign ad supporting John F. Kennedy.[2][28] RFK Jr. subsequently apologized for the ad.[21][28]

In March 2024, RFK Jr.'s campaign manager and daughter-in-law, Amaryllis Fox Kennedy, said that Shanahan was on the candidate's "short list" of potential running mates;[5] the campaign considered other candidates as well, such as Aaron Rodgers and Jesse Ventura.[2]

Personal life

In 2013, Shanahan married Jeremy Asher Kranz, a San Francisco Bay Area investor[8] and finance executive.[29] They divorced in 2015.[30]

Shanahan married Sergey Brin, the co-founder of Google, in 2018.[1][2] They have a daughter together.[7] Shanahan and Brin separated in December 2021,[7][31] and Brin filed for divorce in January 2022.[31] Shanahan and Brin signed a prenuptial agreement; during the divorce proceedings, Shanahan's attorneys argued that she signed the prenuptial agreement under duress, and in mediation sought more than $1 billion of Brin's $95 billion fortune.[29] The divorce was finalized in 2023.[1][2] In 2022, the Wall Street Journal reported that a reason for the breakup was a "brief affair" in 2021 between Shanahan and Elon Musk.[31][29] Shanahan[7] and Musk denied the report.[32] The Wall Street Journal said: "We are confident in our sourcing, and we stand by our reporting."[7]

In 2023, Shanahan held a "love ceremony" to Jacob Strumwasser, who was the vice president at Lightning Labs; she described the event as a handfasting ceremony influenced by Druidic tradition.[33]

Notes

  1. ^ The Bia-Echo Foundation was one of several groups that provided funding for the White House Task Force on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health, in advance of a 2022 report by the task force.[24] The foundation also supported a daylong conference of experts in November 2022, in Boston, sponsored by Tufts University's Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and the school's Food and Nutrition Innovation Institute, "to explore the state of the evidence and evidence gaps regarding the relationships between food, nutrition, and fertility."[25]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Davis O'Brien, Rebecca (February 2, 2024). "Meet the Woman Who Helped Pay for That R.F.K. Super Bowl Ad". The New York Times.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i Rebecca Davis O'Brien (March 17, 2024). "Nicole Shanahan Emerges as a Top Candidate to Be R.F.K. Jr.'s Running Mate". The New York Times.
  3. ^ Price, Rob; Langley, Hugh (June 17, 2022). "Court filings reveal details of Google cofounder Sergey Brin's divorce from his wife, attorney Nicole Shanahan". Business Insider.
  4. ^ "EXCLUSIVE: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Expected to Tap Nicole Shanahan as Running Mate". Mediaite. March 16, 2024. Retrieved March 16, 2024.
  5. ^ a b c Pellish, Aaron (March 17, 2024). "RFK Jr.'s campaign manager says Nicole Shanahan is on VP shortlist". CNN. Retrieved March 17, 2024.
  6. ^ Alafriz, Olivia (March 13, 2024). "RFK Jr. to announce vice presidential pick at the end of March". Politico. Retrieved March 17, 2024.
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Maslow, Nick (July 6, 2023). "Nicole Shanahan 'Moving On' 1 Year After Alleged Elon Musk Affair, Sergey Brin Split (Exclusive)". Retrieved March 6, 2024.
  8. ^ a b c d e Bruce Berman, IPwe could be a harbinger of change in the patent space, IP Closeup (April 30, 2020).
  9. ^ a b c "Class Notes: 2014". Santa Clara Magazine. October 30, 2018.
  10. ^ a b c d e Who Is Nicole Shanahan, woman at centre of Musk-Brin drama?, Bloomberg via Straits Times (July 25, 2022).
  11. ^ "Nicole Shanahan - Transactional Costs and Legal AI: From Coase's Theorm to IBM Watson, and Everything in Between". The Law Lab Channel.
  12. ^ "AI & Hamlet". CodeX Blog. Stanford Law School. June 21, 2016.
  13. ^ "Evolver Tribecca Film Festival". Evolver.
  14. ^ "Kiss The Ground". Kiss the Ground Movie.
  15. ^ "Celebration of Achievement 2023: Highlights and Features!". Santa Clara University School of Law.
  16. ^ "Carbon Royalty Corp". Carbonroyalty.com.
  17. ^ "LinusBio Raises $16 Million to Scale Growth and Deliver Tangible Outcomes" (Press release). Linus Biotechnology, Inc. January 13, 2023.
  18. ^ "Extreme Tech Challenge Welcomes Nicole Shanahan To The Board" (Press release). Extreme Tech Challenge. March 7, 2023.
  19. ^ "The Org - SlooMoo". Theorg.com.
  20. ^ "World's first Center for Female Reproductive Longevity and Equality established at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging" (Press release). Buck Institute. July 25, 2018. Retrieved March 8, 2024.
  21. ^ a b c d Zachary Folk, Who Is Nicole Shanahan? RFK Jr.'s Possible Running Mate Is A Tech Lawyer Once Married To Google Founder Brin, Forbes (March 17, 2024).
  22. ^ Rachel Sandler, Google Cofounder Sergey Brin Just Gave Away Nearly $130 Million Worth Of Shares, Forbes (August 10, 2022).
  23. ^ a b "Nicole Shanahan Gives $100 Million for Reproductive Research and Other Causes". The Chronicle of Philanthropy. September 27, 2019. Retrieved March 8, 2024.
  24. ^ Ambitious, Actionable Recommendations to End Hunger, Advance Nutrition, and Improve Health in the United States (PDF) (Report). Task Force on Hunger, Nutrition, and Health. p. 83. 1. Retrieved March 17, 2024.
  25. ^ Food, nutrition, and fertility: from soil to fork (Report). Science Direct. February 2024. p. 2. 1. Retrieved March 17, 2024.
  26. ^ "Our Annual Philanthropy 50: Top Donors Returned to Pre-Pandemic Causes in 2021". The Chronicle of Philanthropy. February 8, 2022.
  27. ^ "Major Donor and Independent Expenditure Committee Campaign Statement" (PDF). Lavote.gov. February 1, 2021. Retrieved March 17, 2024.
  28. ^ a b c Rebecca Davis O'Brien, R.F.K. Jr. Apologizes to His Family for an Allied Group's Super Bowl Ad, New York Times (February 11, 2024).
  29. ^ a b c Grind, Kirsten; Glazer, Emily (July 25, 2022). "Elon Musk's Friendship With Sergey Brin Ruptured by Alleged Affair". Wall Street Journal.
  30. ^ "Who is Nicole Shanahan, Google co-founder Sergey Brin's ex-wife?". The Statesman. Retrieved March 17, 2024.
  31. ^ a b c Stuti Mishra, Who Is Nicole Shanahan? Meet the woman at the centre of the Elon Musk-Sergey Brin saga, Independent (July 26, 2022).
  32. ^ Rice, Nicholas (July 24, 2022). "Elon Musk Denies Allegation He Had Affair with Google Co-Founder Sergey Brin's Wife Nicole Shanahan". Retrieved March 7, 2024.
  33. ^ Maslow, Nicholas (July 5, 2023). "Nicole Shanahan Commits to Partner Jacob Strumwasser in 'Beautiful' Love Ceremony (Exclusive)". Retrieved March 8, 2024.
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