Judith Estrin

Judith Estrin is an American entrepreneur, business executive and philanthropist who worked with Vinton Cerf on the Transmission Control Protocol project at Stanford University in the 1970s, part of the foundational research that let separate computer networks exchange data as one connected system. She went on to co-found eight technology companies, including networking firms built with Bill Carrico, and served as chief technology officer of Cisco Systems from 1998 to 2000, a company whose equipment carried much of the era's growing volume of networked digital traffic. Since 2007 she has led JLABS, a company focused on innovation in business, government and nonprofit organizations. Estrin's early protocol and networking work sits upstream of the delivery systems that networked and digital media depend on to reach an audience.