For Kimberly Bloomston (’05), technology and ethics go hand in hand. The former philosophy major, now chief product officer at the San Francisco-based tech company LiveRamp, keeps ethics at the forefront of her work. Bloomston always had a curiosity for learning.
An avid chess player, she has always been fascinated by how people think, and she set herself on an unlikely career path when she enrolled in an intro-level philosophy course. Two decades later, that same curiosity drives her work in the tech world.
“I love to think,” she says. “I love to problem solve. From the intro-level to higher-level philosophy classes, Baruch changed how I treated the world and how I think about things. Philosophy was never something I was going to walk away from.”
Beyond examining the big questions, she broadened her worldview outside of the classroom.
“I was born and raised in Florida, and there wasn’t a lot of diversity where I lived, by any stretch of the imagination,” she explains. “I remember on my first day at Baruch, I was standing outside and there were pods of people around all speaking different languages. I had the opportunity to diversify my perspective and knowledge of people.”
Now, she brings cultural awareness to her professional field.
“I’m the executive sponsor of our AI initiatives,” Bloomston says. “When tech companies are so reliant on AI, discrimination can get into products. So we need to monitor, be aware of, and close gaps when discrimination could be happening, even when it’s unintended.”
With a tech career focused on data ethics, AI, and privacy, her philosophy degree always comes in handy.
“Everything is going through a transformation,” she says. “As a philosophy student, I found transformation interesting because perspectives change over time depending on what’s going on in the world. For me, it’s really fun to be a part of how you can help businesses manage transformation.”
Decades later, the passion for ethics that began in her college years doesn’t just guide her work but also her leadership style.
“My ability to empathize with individuals is super, super high. Maybe too high,” she jokes. “I’m interested in philosophy because of the emotional elements, so I use that in how I show up as a leader.”
— Erin Davis