TECH TITANS: Marian Croak

Did you make a Zoom call during the COVID-19 pandemic?  Seems like just about everyone participated in at least one.  If you did, you can thank Marion Croak.

 

Zoom, and other teleconferencing platforms use VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocals).  VoIP translates voices into digital signals so that they can easily be transmitted over the internet.  This is less expensive than traditional telephone lines.  Marion Croak helped develop this process and in doing so helped take the internet to a new level.

 

Marion Croak is also known for her work in enhancing charitable donations.  She developed a way for people to quickly and easily make donations simply by texting one word to a number.  So when Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans in 2005, this new process helped raise $130,000.  Then when Haiti experienced an earthquake in 2010, the technology was much more familiar, and raised $43 million.

 

Marion Croak is now a Vice President of Engineering for Google, working in the fields of Artificial Intelligence and Human Centered Technology.  It is certain that we will hear more from her in the future.