Ex-Ancestry CEO: How AI is Forcing Companies to Rethink Everything
About this episode
Deborah Liu discusses modern leadership in the age of AI and the importance of adaptability and innovation culture.
What does it actually take to lead in the age of AI? On this episode of Digital Disruption, we’re joined by Deborah Liu, former CEO of Ancestry and former VP of Facebook Marketplace at Meta. Deborah joins Geoff to share a candid, practical look at modern leadership in 2026. Drawing on her experience scaling billion-user platforms and transforming legacy organizations, she explains why “adding AI” isn’t a strategy and what it truly means to build an AI-native company. They unpack Facebook’s mobile-first pivot and what it teaches about leading through disruption, why adaptability may be the most important executive skill of the next decade, and how CEOs should think about AI governance, security, and enterprise guardrails. Deborah also discusses building with a founder mindset inside large organizations and creating a culture where innovation comes from the bottom up. This conversation also explores the human side of leadership and why communication makes up 80% of the job. Deborah was most recently President and CEO of Ancestry, where she brought the legacy company into its next phase of growth. In her prior role at Meta, she turned persistence into a platform. The idea for…
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