Fidji Simo

She ran Facebook’s app. Took Instacart public. And now, she’s scaling OpenAI beyond ChatGPT into everyday life.

Fidji Simo grew up in Sète, a fishing town in the south of France.

Her dad was a fisherman.

Her mom worked at the port.

She was the first in her family to graduate high school.

From there?

HEC Paris. UCLA. And then Silicon Valley.

She spent 10 years at Facebook, helping build the core of the platform.

She launched Facebook Live.

Scaled Facebook Watch to 400 million users.

Built the video ad engine that now fuels Meta.

She ran News Feed, Gaming, Marketplace, even Dating.

And in 2019, she took over the entire Facebook app.

Then, in 2021, she left to become the CEO of Instacart.

The company had boomed during the pandemic, but everyone thought it would fade.

She proved them wrong.

She led the business into profitability, expanded its tech stack, and took it public in 2023.

All while co-founding a health institute.

Metrodora was born out of personal experience.

With doctors missing complex diagnoses and patients falling through the cracks.

She built a research and care center focused on neuroimmune disorders.

It now has $35M in funding and is working with top biotech companies to fast-track cures.

She also sits on the boards of Shopify and OpenAI.

And in 2025, she stepped into a new role: CEO of Applications at OpenAI, reporting directly to Sam Altman.