5 Questions with managing director of Google Cloud’s AI business Caroline Yap

HAVING an interest in computers and fixing appliances formed the foundation on which Caroline Yap, managing director of AI Business at Google Cloud, built her career.

Yap’s journey has been unconventional. She has done everything from fixing TVs at an appliance repair shop, to setting up an Internet cafe and teaching people how to surf the Web and write e-mails. At age 18, the young Malaysian ran away from home and found herself in the United Kingdom, where she secured a job setting up phone systems.

In this month’s 5 Questions, Yap shares how an engineer and not a data scientist ended up at Google Cloud’s AI business and how somebody believing in you can be empowering.