Jaime Teevan ’98, a scientist, researcher, and technology innovator, has been elected to serve as an alumni fellow of Yale’s Board of Trustees, known formally as the Yale Corporation, in a worldwide balloting of university graduates. She begins a six-year term on July 1.
Teevan is chief scientist and technical fellow at Microsoft, where she has overseen research-backed innovation in the company’s core products. Under her leadership, the company has integrated advanced technology into its suite of everyday productivity tools, including the creation of M365 Copilot, an AI-powered productivity tool.
A computer science major at Yale, Teevan wrote her senior thesis on web search — research subsequently acquired by Infoseek, an early web search engine, and her first employer. She joined Microsoft in 2006, where she distinguished herself as a creative and flexible thinker, habits of mind she has noted were cultivated at Yale. “To be a good scientist, you need to see things in new ways, and you need to understand the past, and you need to be able to communicate clearly,” Teevan has said. “And this is at the heart of a Yale education, regardless of your discipline.”
Over her career, she has produced 280 publications, over 21,000 citations, and 61 patents, and she invented the first personalized search algorithm used by Microsoft’s Bing search engine. Before moving to her current role, she served as technical advisor to Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s chief executive officer.
“Since her undergraduate years at Yale, Jaime has been at the forefront of technology — while consistently putting people at the center of her scientific research and seeking to improve lives and make everyday experiences better,” said Yale President Maurie McInnis. “Her love of Yale has been shown through her acts of service to the university, and I look forward to working with her in this new role.”
Eligible Yale alumni vote each year to elect one new alumni fellow to the Yale Corporation, the university’s governing board and policymaking body.
Candidates for alumni fellow are selected from nominations submitted by alumni from around the world to the Alumni Fellow Nominating Committee, a standing committee of the Yale Alumni Association. (The committee is composed of alumni from across the university’s schools and departments who serve on the Yale Alumni Association Board of Governors, the secretary of the university, the vice president for alumni affairs and development, the president of the University Council, and a member of the Yale Corporation.) All alumni are encouraged to submit nominations of qualified candidates through the online alumni fellow nomination form.
Joining Teevan on the ballot this year was Robert S. D. Higgins ’85 M.D., the president and chief academic and clinical officer of Rush University and the senior vice president at Rush University System for Health, in Chicago. “Bob’s dedication and service to Yale has been remarkable, including in his continuing service on the Yale Corporation Committee on the School of Medicine. I thank him for his willingness to be considered for this role,” said McInnis.
Teevan earned a Ph.D. in in electrical engineering and computer science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and completed the Financial Technology Option program at MIT’s Sloan School of Management.
Teevan’s service to Yale has included membership on the School of Engineering & Applied Science (SEAS) Leadership Council. In addition, Teevan sits on several boards, including those of Shutterstock and the Computing Research Association. She is also an Association for Computing Machinery Fellow and recipient of the Karen Sparck Jones award and the Technology Review TR35 Young Innovator award. In 2023, she was recognized by Time magazine as one of the top 100 most influential people in AI.
Teevan also serves as an affiliate professor at the University of Washington’s Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science & Engineering.
Teevan lives in Bellevue, Washington with her husband, Alex Hehmeyer ’97, ’04 M.B.A., and their four sons.
