Hugo Barra
VP of VR | Facebook
MIT
Hugo Barra is a name that you probably want to know if you’re in the tech world. He’s been named one of the Wired 100, Business Insider’s Silicon Valley 100, and Época magazine’s most influential Brazilians.
After growing up in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, Barra began his college studies in Brazil at Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais but then transferred to MIT, where he earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science, as well as a bachelor’s degree in management science.
In 2008, Barra joined Google in its London offices. During his nearly five-year tenure with Google, Barra contributed to the development of the Android operating system—expanding it to thousands of partners and more than one billion people around the world.
In 2013, Barra left Google for the executive team at Xiaomi in Beijing, where he led the company’s global expansion strategy to markets beyond mainland China, such as India, Southeast Asia, and Brazil. In January 2017, Barra announced that he would be leaving Xiaomi to return to Silicon Valley, where his friends and family were.
Upon leaving Xiaomi, he joined Facebook as the vice president of virtual reality, leading the Oculus team. With teams devoted to research, computer vision, optics, social interaction, and more, Oculus is committed to driving the state-of-the-art technology forward through relentless innovation.
Social Media Socialite
Hugo Barra is pretty active on social media, with nearly 135,000 Facebook followers and more than 115,000 Twitter followers. On his social media accounts, he posts everything from articles about VR to promotional videos of projects he’s working on to photos of outings with friends and family.
To see his social media, find his Facebook page here and his Twitter here.
