Experience

Margarita Quihuis is the CEO of PeaceX Ventures, the first venture studio dedicated to building Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) native companies from the ground up.

She is the Executive Director of the Peace Innovation Lab (PIL) at Stanford and CEO of the Peace Innovation Institute at The Hague.

Experience

Margarita Quihuis is the CEO of PeaceX Ventures, the first venture studio dedicated to building Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) native companies from the ground up.

She is the Executive Director of the Peace Innovation Lab (PIL) at Stanford and CEO of the Peace Innovation Institute at The Hague.

Margarita’s career has been on the leading edge of new technology, digital transformation, human-centered design, access to capital, entrepreneurship, research, and impact.

New Technology Adoption

At Raychem Corporation, Margarita oversaw the digital transformation into Computer Aided Design, a process that shrank design time by 96%. At Horsley Bridge Partners, a venture fund of funds, she designed the investment algorithms for their proprietary venture investment expert system, which resulted in a 95% reduction in reporting effort. At IDEO, she was in charge of the company’s transition to the internet and digital media as a tool for employee and client engagement.

Access to Capital

Margarita launched Astia, the first technology incubator for women entrepreneurs, and raised $67M in venture funding in 18 months. She served on the boards of directors and advised portfolio companies in enterprise software, legal compliance, and supply chain services as a venture partner at NewVista Capital, the first African-American venture capital firm in Silicon Valley focused on investing in women and POC.

Corporate Innovation

As RI Labs’ director, she identified new business opportunities in data storage, mobile devices, e-commerce, and next-generation office automation. She has advised executives in Financial Services, Transportation, Healthcare and other sectors on increasing ROI within their innovation practices.

Cutting Edge Research

While at Stanford, Margarita’s research has spanned technology ethics, digital diplomacy, digital persuasion and influence, govtech, digital trust, sustainable business, ESG, and AI for Good. She is a recognized expert in behavior design, peace innovation, peace engineering, persuasive technology, and game design thinking and is a published author on these topics.

Her corporate research has included data analytics, the future of work, generational changes in the workforce, and crowdsourcing for innovation. Her work at IDEO focused on designing for gender and inclusion for new consumer technologies.

Impact

Margarita is a Stanford Reuters Digital Vision Program Fellow. RDVP Fellows used technology-based solutions to promote humanitarian, educational, and sustainable development goals.

She has co-founded two impact startups in the areas of financial inclusion and sustainable agriculture.

She’s spoken to numerous corporations and institutions on persuasive technology, behavior change,tech ethics, social impact, and the emerging fields of peace innovation and peace engineering. She has given talks at Stanford, the Conference Board, CES, SXSW, TEDx, and the Aspen Institute.

Margarita advises corporations on their climate change risk exposure and provides mitigation strategies using innovative solutions while supporting social impact.

By integrating ESG solutions into the private sector, she shows how they contribute to both economic growth and improved health and well-being organization’s bottom line and to its stakeholder base.

Governance

A member of the Scan Foundation board, she serves on both the compensation and finance committees. She sits on the boards of Alive Ventures, Inc., and UnaMesa.org, and the advisory board of Inflection Point. She has held a variety of non-profit and startup board seats.

Honors

Margarita's CV including publications, honors, and recognitions.