Sama Appoints Facebook/eBay Veteran and Former East Palo Alto Mayor Regina Wallace-Jones, to its Board of Directors

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. -- (January 12, 2022) -- Sama, the AI company delivering accurate data for ambitious AI to Fortune 2000 companies, today announces the appointment of Regina Wallace-Jones as Chairwoman to the company’s Board of Directors. Wallace-Jones is the current Chief Operating Officer at LendStreet, the leading restructuring platform turning financial distress into financial health, and brings over 25 years of leadership experience to the Sama team both as a tech executive and as a public servant. 

 Before joining LendStreet, Wallace-Jones served as the Senior Vice President at Mindbody inc, overseeing company revenue, profit, and customer satisfaction. Her wealth of leadership experience also includes executive positions at Yahoo!, eBay and Facebook. Wallace-Jones is a dedicated public servant who recently completed her term as the mayor of East Palo Alto and continues to serve her community as a city council member. A longtime philanthropist, Regina Wallace-Jones strives to be a force for positive change and currently serves as a board member for change.org, the world’s largest social change platform, and is a member of Chief, a national women’s network focused on connecting and supporting women executive leaders. 

“Regina’s vast experience as a leader and philanthropist combined with her unwavering commitment to enacting positive change makes her the perfect fit for Sama’s board,” said Wendy Gonzalez, CEO of Sama. “As a company whose social impact mission remains at the center of all innovations, we are ecstatic to have Regina in our corner as we continue to serve the world’s most ambitious AI companies while advocating for an ethical AI supply chain.” 

Sama supports AI development across various industries, including manufacturing and robotics, bio and medtech, autonomous vehicles, entertainment, e-commerce, retail, and agriculture. Driven by a mission to expand opportunities for underserved individuals through the digital economy, Sama’s impact-led business model has helped over 58,000 people lift themselves out of poverty.

“Sama is a leader in AI innovation, powering emerging technologies that can have a profound impact on our lives while driving impact in ways that help us redefine work globally,” said Regina Wallace-Jones, member and Chairwoman of Sama’s Board of Directors. “I am proud to join Sama’s Board of Directors to help the company continue to serve as an example of how technology deployed right can be an extraordinary answer for people all around the world.” 

The announcement comes on the heels of the company’s $70M Series B raise, which Sama will use to continue delivering the highest quality training data to power AI applications and to develop the first end-to-end AI platform to manage the complete AI lifecycle. Sama is the only B Corp certified AI infrastructure company and has received numerous recognitions, including Forbes AI 50, Inc. 5000 Fastest-Growing Private Companies, Fast Company’s Next Big Things in Tech, and Inc. Best in Business lists.

 About Sama

Sama provides high-quality training data that powers AI technology. The company’s platform is trusted by leading companies such as Google, NVIDIA, GM, and Walmart, to develop accurate machine learning models. Sama specializes in image, video, language, and sensor data annotation and validation for machine learning algorithms in industries including manufacturing and robotics, bio and medtech, autonomous vehicles, entertainment, e-commerce, retail, and agriculture. Driven by a mission to expand opportunities for underserved individuals through the digital economy, Sama has helped over 56,000 people lift themselves out of poverty. Its training and employment program were recently validated by an MIT-led Randomized Controlled Trial. For more information, visit www.sama.com.

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Media Contact

VSC on behalf of Sama

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