Shanahan and Brin have been married for more than three years but announced in June they planned to divorce, citing “irreconcilable differences”. The Wall Street Journal reported this weekend that Musk and Shanahan had an extramarital affair, an allegation Musk has denied ever since.
Shanahan and Brin signed a prenuptial agreement and are currently negotiating the terms of their divorce, in which she seeks more than $1 billion, according to reports. That could put her divorce settlement on par with billionaire philanthropists MacKenzie Scott and Melinda Gates.
Now an attorney and a research fellow at CodeX, the Stanford legal informatics center, Shanahan founded ClearAccessIP, a Palo Alto-based company that helps patent holders manage and monetize their rights. their intellectual property. It was acquired by rival IPWE in 2020.
The daughter of a Chinese immigrant, Shanahan told about her mother, who worked as a maid and grew up on a public pension. According to her LinkedIn profile, she graduated from the University of Puget Sound in Washington State, where she studied economics, Asian studies, and Mandarin. She earned a law degree from Santa Clara University, and worked as an exchange student at the National University of Singapore.
foundation work
In 2019, Shanahan started her own foundation, Beer-Echo, and pledged $100 million to prolong reproductive life — access to health technologies that help women have children later in life — and reform criminal justice, among other matters. She is also a supporter of leftist organizations and Democratic political candidates.
Shanahan said in an interview with Puck this month: “I want to make that clear and assure everyone that I have always been committed to dedicating my life to social justice, climate solutions. and a caring, caring democracy.” “And I really think that coming out of this separation, I feel very optimistic about how I can grow in this role.”
