Iris Chen – Moloco

Growing up as a first-generation American, Iris Chen was raised with a clear expectation: choose a respected profession, ideally in medicine or law. The sciences didn’t spark her curiosity, but storytelling, analysis, and advocacy did. Law, she realized, was a way to merge intellect and impact—to build a career that could open doors, not just follow one path.

Iris Chen | Moloco | General Counsel & Corporate Secretary

“I saw law as a foundation for possibility,” she recalls. “It gave me a way to think critically and creatively, and to make an impact that extended beyond myself.”

At Yale, she majored in English, sharpening the analytical and writing skills that would serve her well at Columbia Law School and throughout her career. When it came time to choose a practice area, Chen gravitated toward transactional law rather than litigation. She enjoyed the collaborative nature of deals—the way lawyers, clients, and teams worked together to achieve business outcomes.

Her first job at Simpson Thacher introduced her to a unique niche: exempt organizations law. A partner noticed her background in the arts and invited her to join a practice that advised cultural institutions like The Metropolitan Museum of Art on governance and investment matters. Working with museums, foundations, and universities grounded her legal work in purpose.

“It taught me early on that I’m most motivated when I can see the broader mission behind the work,” she says.

But after several years, the traditional law firm path—partnership or a move into finance—felt too narrow. Chen wanted to work somewhere dynamic, innovative, and mission-driven. When Google came calling, she took a leap. It was 2006, and the company’s New York legal team was just getting started. What might have seemed like a risk to some became the turning point of her career.

Tech, trust, & transformation

At Google, Chen found herself in a world that married business, technology, and law in real time. Over 14 years, she helped guide the company’s explosive growth while managing increasingly complex global legal challenges.

“It was the first time I learned how to scale legal support alongside a fast-growing business,” she says. “And I learned the importance of adaptability—how to stay agile in a constantly changing environment.”

As she rose to vice president, Chen led a team of more than 100 legal professionals, learning to build high-performing groups that could both protect and propel the business. The work was dynamic, but after over a decade, she began to crave something new—a role where she could stretch her leadership even further.

That opportunity came at Airbnb, where she joined as Deputy General Counsel during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The shift from Google’s structure to Airbnb’s entrepreneurial pace was profound. Chen had to build trust and credibility from scratch—virtually.

“I parachuted in at a senior level without the established relationships I had at Google,” she explains. “It forced me to lead differently—to get in the trenches with my team, to listen first, and to earn trust through action.”

The experience was intense, transformative, and reaffirmed her belief that leadership is about people first. After four years, she was ready for her next challenge: stepping into her first general counsel role.

Empowering growth at Moloco

In 2024, Chen joined Moloco, a company at the forefront of AI-powered advertising technology. Founded in 2013 by former Google engineers, Moloco is driven by a simple but bold vision: to be the scaling engine for the internet economy.

Moloco’s products empower businesses to unlock growth and monetization opportunities through advanced machine learning and AI across three rapidly expanding segments. Moloco Ads serves as an AI-powered advertising platform designed for mobile app marketers, helping them reach and retain users more effectively. Moloco Commerce Media enables marketplaces and retailers to create high-performing ad networks, turning their commerce data into revenue-driving media solutions. Meanwhile, Moloco Streaming Monetization provides streaming services with the tools to maximize ad revenue, optimizing audience engagement and monetization through intelligent automation.

Moloco’s customers include Chime, Pinterest, Bumble, Wayfair, and Tubi—companies that rely on its machine learning solutions to connect content, commerce, and consumers more efficiently.

For Chen, Moloco represents the perfect intersection of mission and momentum.

“There’s a common thread through all my roles,” she says. “At Google, I helped small businesses reach customers. At Airbnb, I helped individuals unlock economic opportunities. At Moloco, I’m helping companies of all sizes harness the power of AI to grow and stay independent.”

Since joining, Chen has built and reshaped the legal team to meet the company’s expanding global footprint across APAC, EMEA, and India. When she arrived, Moloco’s legal department had just eight members, primarily focused on day-to-day commercial work. Under her leadership, it has grown to 14—small but mighty, with the bandwidth to handle everything from commercial transactions and product counseling to employment, compliance, and corporate governance.

One of her first priorities was to reorganize roles around strengths. She hired top talent, including expert employment and commercial attorneys and restructured teams to align with Moloco’s evolving product lines.

“You can’t scale effectively without playing to your people’s strengths,” she explains. “My goal was to build a team that’s both specialized and collaborative—designed for scale, not just for today.”

Legal strategy meets AI innovation

Like many leaders at Moloco, Chen embraces technology not just as a business enabler but as an internal advantage. Her legal team has become an early adopter of AI-powered legal tools—using automation to streamline contracts, compliance, and communications while remaining lean and efficient.

“At Moloco, we encourage everyone to experiment with AI and share best practices,” Chen says. “On the Legal team, we even have an ‘AI Moment’ at our all-hands meetings where team members demo how they’re using new tools to improve productivity.”

From automated contract data extraction to AI chatbots that handle vendor reminders, her team continually finds creative ways to save time and redirect energy toward high-value work.

Still, Chen insists that technology is only as powerful as the people behind it. She credits her legal operations lead with driving much of the department’s innovation—mapping workflows, identifying friction points, and evaluating which tools deliver measurable results. The approach reflects Chen’s pragmatic philosophy: invest thoughtfully, scale efficiently, and never lose sight of the human side of legal work.

Beyond efficiency, her team also focuses on being proactive—anticipating regulatory shifts, staying ahead of AI-related compliance issues, and preparing for a potential IPO. One of their biggest projects this year involved overhauling Moloco’s signature authority policy. This initiative not only strengthened governance but also streamlined deal approvals, reducing bottlenecks in the sales process.

“We’re always looking for ways to align compliance with business enablement,” she explains. “Good governance shouldn’t slow you down—it can actually make you faster in the long run.”

Leadership model for the next generation

Having led teams of over 100 people at Google and 50 at Airbnb, Chen knows that leadership isn’t about individual brilliance—it’s about building systems that allow great people to thrive.

“I believe great teams are more valuable than great individuals,” she says. “My role is to create the conditions for others to do their best work.”

At Moloco, that means fostering transparency, collaboration, and psychological safety. She takes a hands-on approach to mentorship, often sitting down with team members to redline drafts together, explaining her reasoning and encouraging them to think critically about business context. It’s a practice she inherited from early mentors who invested in her growth—and one she now pays forward.

Her leadership style also reflects her belief in diversity of thought and experience. When interviewing candidates, she looks for not just technical skill but also humility, empathy, and the ability to work through disagreements constructively.

“You can be a brilliant lawyer,” she says, “but if you can’t collaborate, you won’t succeed here.”

That ethos mirrors Moloco’s own culture, which prizes ownership, learning, and an “uncapped growth mindset.” Employees are encouraged to think like founders—to take initiative, learn continuously, and drive impact. For Chen, it’s the perfect environment: fast-moving, mission-driven, and grounded in shared purpose.

“I’m energized by being around people who genuinely want to learn,” she says. “At Moloco, there’s a spirit of curiosity and collaboration that feels very special. It’s not about hierarchy—it’s about what we can build together.”

Scaling with purpose

As Moloco continues to expand globally, Chen’s focus remains on balancing scale with sustainability. She’s ensuring the company is ready for future milestones, whether that’s deeper market penetration, broader AI adoption, or a potential public offering. But for her, success isn’t just about metrics—it’s about meaning.

Throughout her career, from Simpson Thacher to Google to Airbnb and now Moloco, Chen has sought roles where law enables something larger: creativity, innovation, opportunity.

“The work we do in legal has to matter,” she says. “It’s not just about mitigating risk—it’s about unlocking potential.”

At Moloco, that philosophy is in full motion. By marrying legal strategy with technological innovation, Chen isn’t just advising a fast-growing company—she’s helping to shape the future of the internet economy itself.