Laura Vais

As Vice President, Marketing, Laura Vais is responsible for leading a growing team of professionals who implement the Skoll Foundation’s “connect and celebrate” strategy of social entrepreneurs. In addition to overall marketing and communications activities, she oversees the foundation’s film and media initiatives, the Social Edge online community and the annual Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford University in the U.K.

Laura has more than 18 years of experience in marketing, corporate communications, brand strategy and Web site implementation for companies in Silicon Valley. Laura came to the Skoll Foundation from Applied Biosystems in Foster City, Calif., where she served as Director of Marketing for Genomics and, most recently, as Director of Worldwide Corporate Marketing, with responsibility for global corporate brand programs, advertising and public relations.

Previously, Laura worked at Silicon Graphics in Mountain View, Calif., where she focused exclusively for five years on the firm’s award-winning Web site, leading content, production and engineering teams responsible for SGI’s global online presence.

Prior to moving into the high-tech and biotech industries, Laura worked in the field of special education, first as a teacher for learning disabled children and then as a therapist at the Communicative Disorders Center at University Hospital in San Diego, Calif.

Laura received a bachelor’s degree in cultural anthropology from the University of California at Davis. In addition, she earned a standard elementary teaching credential and a learning handicapped teaching credential from San Diego State University.