Former Digital Transformation Leader, Google
Janaki Akella joined the board of Akamai in July 2025. She also serves on the board of Southern Company, the American gas and electric utility holding company (NYSE: SO), as well as the board of SLM Corporation, the private education lender more commonly known as Sallie Mae (NASDAQ: SLM).
Dr. Akella has decades of experience in executive leadership roles in the technology industry and consulting services, advising clients across multiple industries on technology-enabled transformation and data strategy, business strategy, growth, and operations. Most recently, she was an executive at Google, where she held the roles of Chief of Staff for Search, Head of Digital Transformation: Director of Cloud, and Chief of Business Operations: Director, Ads Privacy and Safety. Before that, she was a partner at McKinsey & Company, where she served clients in various roles from 1999 to 2017. She began her career at Hewlett-Packard, where she was an Engineer Scientist and Technical Contributor.
Dr. Akella holds a Ph.D. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, a Master of Science from Boston University, and a Bachelor of Engineering from the College of Engineering, Guindy (India).