15 Things You Should Know About Anne Wojcicki
We're always intrigued by an odd couple, so we couldn't help but do a double take this morning when we read that New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez was dating Anne Wojcicki, the ex-wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin and a Silicon Valley mover in her own right. A-Rod has been previously linked to blondes such as Cameron Diaz, Kate Hudson, and Madonna, none of whom resemble the the Silicon Valley entrepreneur who was the subject of a T&C profile last year. Here's what you need to know about Wojcicki:
1. Her name is pronounced Woe-JIT-ski.
2. She launched her genetic testing company, 23andMe, in 2006. Its mission is to "give individuals direct access to their genetic makeup and explain what that information may predict about their future health so they can make proactive choices about their care."
3. It hasn't always been easy. The FDA took issue with one aspect of her product, the Personal Genome Service, showing what diseases for which customers might be at risk. The government agency wants potentially traumatic test results to be delivered under doctor supervision.
4. The DNA test, which requires just a saliva sample, costs $199.
5. The 23 in 23andMe stands for the 23 pairs of chromosomes that contain our DNA.
6. The idea for 23andMe came to Wojcicki when she was working at an investment fund on Wall Street. She jokingly says she moved back to the Bay Area, where she grew up near the Stanford campus, "because she couldn't face one more meeting in a strip club."
7. She's kind of a bro: Wojcicki calls herself-and others-dude.
8. She and Brin divorced last May after he reportedly had an affair with a Google marketing employee. The couple had a prenuptial agreement and reached a settlement for an undisclosed amount.
9. But they are on good terms. They have a son and daughter together and texts from Brin interrupted Dr. Peter B. Bach's T&C interview with Wojcicki several times.
10. Anne's sister Susan works at Google. She's the CEO of YouTube.
11. Their father was a physics professor at Stanford for more than 40 years.
12. Wojcicki is into fitness-just like A-Rod. She bikes seven miles a day and a quarter of 23andMe's one-story office is left open for CrossFit classes. Maybe they hit the box together?
13. She owns a cute, child-friendly cafe in the Bay Area called Bumble.
14. She probably has more in the bank that Rodriguez. His net worth has been estimated at $300 million, while hers could be north of a billion.
15. She's also better educated. Wojcicki went to Yale; A-Rod was drafted by the Seattle Mariners straight out of high school, so he skipped college altogether.
For more about Wojcicki, read T&C's profile here.
