Hugo Barra

Hugo Barra is Vice President of Virtual Reality at Facebook where he leads the Oculus team.

Until 2017, Hugo was Vice President of Xiomi Global, a user-centric mobile company to meet expectations through software, hardware and Internet service innovations. Prior to that, he was Google’s Chief Product Officer since March 2008 and is based in the London office, where most of Google’s mobile products are developed. The company was founded by Lei Jun and seven entrepreneurs, Xiaomi started in 2010 and launched MIUI, a deeply optimized Android-based operating system. We now offer a variety of products and services mainly through our e-commerce websites, including MI4, MI3, RedMI, RedMI Note, MI2, MI Box, MI TV, MI charger, Mi Band and other accessories. With many innovations, Xiaomi strives to reinvent the mobile internet business in China.

Prior to Google, he was the Chief Business Officer of Nuance Communications, where he was the co-founder of the global mobile search business unit through voice and voice messaging software products: Nuance Mobile. During his nearly 5-year tenure at Nuance, he has assumed various responsibilities including product management, product marketing, and business development and has launched a large number of speech recognition products that positioned Nuance as the largest mobile software provider globally.

Previously, Hugo co-founded LOBBY7, a Boston-based mobile software company that spun out of MIT Media Lab and supported by Softbank, which was later acquired by Nuance Communications in 2003.

Hugo also did summer internships at McKinsey & Company, Merrill Lynch, Netscape Communications, and Walt Disney Imagineering.

Hugo is originally from Brazil, has a Bachelor of Science degree (2000) and a Master of Engineering with a specialty in Electrical and Computer Engineering from MIT (2002). He holds a B.A. in Management Science from the MIT Sloan School of Management (2000). He worked as a research assistant at the Media Lab and MIT Artificial Intelligence Lab from 1996 to 2000, and was President of his class from 1999 to 2000.