Sophie Vandebroek

Sophie V. Vandebroek
Born	Leuven, Belgium
Occupation(s)	Electrical engineer, corporate leader
Years active	1990–present
Known for	Chief Technology Officer and President of Xerox Innovation Group; Chief Operating Officer at IBM Research; inaugural Visiting Scholar at MIT School of Engineering; founder of Strategic Vision Ventures LLC

Sophie V. Vandebroek is an electrical engineer and corporate leader originally from Belgian. She held the position of Chief Technology Officer and President of the Xerox Innovation Group until December 2016. From 2006 to 2016, Vandebroek was Xerox's CTO and a corporate vice president. After her tenure at Xerox, she assumed the role of Chief Operating Officer at IBM Research. Subsequently, she served as the inaugural Visiting Scholar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's School of Engineering for the academic year 2019-2020. In 2021, she established Strategic Vision Ventures LLC, a firm specializing in strategic consulting.

Early life

Vandebroek was born in Leuven, Belgium. At the age of seven, witnessing the Moon landing inspired her ambition to become an astronaut, leading her to pursue engineering. She selected a dual major in electrical and mechanical engineering as the most direct academic path toward this goal.

Education

She obtained a master's degree in electromechanical engineering from KU Leuven before relocating to the United States in 1986. There, she completed her doctoral studies in electrical engineering at Cornell University in 1990.

Career

Beginning her professional journey at IBM research laboratories in 1990, Vandebroek joined Xerox a year later. She has publicly praised Xerox for its supportive culture toward women professionals. Her board memberships include Analogic Corporation (2008–2016) and IDEXX Laboratories since 2013. Vandebroek has delivered numerous talks on topics such as artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, the Internet of Things, and energy democratization. She has also provided advisory support to engineering deans at both MIT (from 2010 onward) and Cornell University (2005–2011). Her departure from Xerox coincided with the company's restructuring at the end of 2016.

In January 2017, she took on the role of COO at IBM Research but stepped down in July 2019 to become MIT’s first-ever School of Engineering Visiting Scholar. In 2020, Vandebroek joined the supervisory board of Wolters Kluwer and, in 2021, became a board member of Inari Agriculture, affiliated with Flagship Pioneering.

She also holds trustee positions at the Boston Museum of Science and the Massachusetts Technology Leadership Council.

In May 2021, KU Leuven appointed her as an Honorary Professor within their Engineering Science Faculty for a five-year period.

Personal life

Vandebroek lives in Boston, Massachusetts with her three grown children and holds United States citizenship.

Awards

In 2005, she was named a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. Five years later, in 2010, she was inducted as a foreign member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts. Additionally, she has been honored in the Women in Technology Hall of Fame and is featured among Notable Women in Computing.