Biography
Merline Saintil is a software engineer turned Silicon Valley COO and investor who has guided six companies through IPOs and is an active angel investor in enterprise technology, AI, and deep tech.
She serves as a Fortune 100 board director at TD Synnex (SNX) and as Lead Independent Director of Rocket Lab (RKLB), a pioneering space exploration company – a distinction held by only a handful of Black women globally. She also chairs the Nominations and Governance Committee at Symbotic (SYM), a high-growth company revolutionizing supply chain logistics through AI-enabled automation. Across public and newly public boards, she advises on enterprise risk, technology strategy, AI, cybersecurity, and digital transformation.
Merline is co-founder of Black Women on Boards, a network of 200+ executives representing $11 trillion in market cap, through which she has placed over 50 women on corporate boards in just four years. She also co-executive produced the award-winning documentary OnBoard, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in June 2023.
Prior to her board work, she held executive leadership roles at Intuit, Yahoo, PayPal, Adobe, Joyent, and Sun Microsystems.
Recognition
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2024 Carnegie Mellon Engineering Alumni Outstanding Achievement Award
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2023 CNBC Changemakers Advisory Board
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2023 Worth Magazine’s Worthy 100
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Business Insider: #6 of the 22 Most Powerful Women Engineers in the World
Merline graduated valedictorian and summa cum laude with a BS in Computer Science from Florida A&M University, earned an MS from Carnegie Mellon University, and is an alumna of Stanford Business School.
She is a proud mom of Jasmine Aikey – the first Stanford soccer player to win both the MAC Hermann Trophy and Academic All-America Team Member of the Year in the same season, and only the second player in Division I history to achieve this rare double. She now plays professionally in the NWSL for Denver Summit FC.
