Nicole Shanahan, founder of Clear Access IP and Bia-Echo, is someone you should know. Born in Oakland, California,
Shanahan is American by nationality and shares an Asian-American ethnic background since her mother immigrated from China to the US.
She struggled with fertility, married Google co-founder Sergey Brin, and welcomed a daughter with him.
However, the couple filed for divorce in early 2022. Apparently, she cheated on her billionaire husband with a bigger billionaire.
Though the reason cited was “irreconcilable differences,” rumors suggest that Nicole had an affair with Elon Musk. Both Elon and Nicole have denied the claims.
Nicole Shanahan Quick Facts
| Full Name | Nicole Shanahan |
| Nick Name | Nicole |
| Birthday | 1989 |
| Age | 35 years old |
| Birth Place | Oakland, California, USA |
| Horoscope | |
| Religion | Christianity |
| Nationality | American |
| Ethnicity | Asian-American |
| Education | University of Puget Sound |
| Father’s Name | Shaw Shanahan |
| Mother’s Name | Amy Shanahan |
| Siblings | |
| Half-Siblings | |
| Height | 5 feet 4 inches (1.68m) |
| Weight | 58 kg (127 lbs.) |
| Shoe Size | 7 |
| Hair Color | Brunette |
| Eye Color | Brown |
| Physique (Figure) | Fit |
| Married | No |
| Relationship Status | Divorced |
| Husband | N/A |
| Ex-Partner | Sergey Brin |
| Son | |
| Daughter | 1 daughter |
| Famous As | Businesswoman Sergey Brin’s Ex-Wife Elon Musk’s Alleged Affair |
| Net Worth | $150 million |
| Social Media |
A Background: Who Is Nicole Shanahan?
Nicole Shanahan is an American businesswoman, lawyer, and expert in patents. Not only that, she is also the founder and CEO of Clear AccessIP. This company deals with comprehensive patent management tool.
Also, Nicole Shanahan is the founder/president of the Bia-Echo Foundation, a non-profit.
It supports entrepreneurs address some critical challenges facing the world today.
They deal with reproductive longevity, equality, criminal justice reform, and so on.
Nicole Shanahan joined the Board of Directors for Extreme Tech Challenge (ETC). She aims to expand and strengthen its global footprint through various partnerships.
Nicole Shanahan is a person who invests in changemakers and is on the cutting edge of innovation.
Interestingly, Nicole’s background in the legal sector and her innovations in the entrepreneurial sector go hand in hand.
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Nicole Shanahan: Wiki, Age, Chinese Parents
Nicole Shanahan was born in the year 1989 and is currently 35 years old. She grew up in Oakland, California.
According to the sources, Nicole’s mother’s name is Amy Shanahan and father’s name is Shawn Shanahan. Amy reportedly immigrated from China to the US and met Shawn there.
After marriage, unfortunately, Shawn got diagnosed with Bipolar Schizophrenia. Nicole recalled how living with a sick father and an unemployed mother was tough.
She credits the tough times as it helped her create a business mindset.
Nicole Shanahan Nationality and Ethnic Background
Born in Oakland, California, USA, Nicole is American by nationality.
However, since her mother immigrated from Chita to the USA, Nicole shares the Asian-American ethnic background.
Personal Life and Relationships
Sergey Brin’s life took a turn in 2015 after his divorce from Anne Wojcicki.
Not long after, he met Nicole Shanahan at a yoga retreat. At that time, Sergey was freshly divorced and Nicole was married to a high level finance executive.
It’s unclear when Nicole and her finance executive husband divorced. But, the first time she appeared together with Sergey was in 2015, at the wedding of Alexandra Chong, founder of Lulu dating app.
The intimate but “wildly-fun” wedding in Jamaica had Sergey and Nicole sitting beside one another.
They hit it off and eventually started dating in 2016. By 2017, Sergey and Nicole were living together.
On November 7, 2018, Nicole and Sergey married each other in a very intimate and private wedding ceremony.
After her marriage to Sergey, Nicole became a step-mom to his two kids, Benji Wojin and Chloe Wojin.
Sergey’s two children are from his previous marriage to Anne Wojcicki from 2007 to 2015.
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Children and Struggle with Fertility
Nicole Shanahan, like many women in their early 30s, decided to freeze embryos. Shanahan felt she was not quite ready to start a family.
But when she wanted to, Nicole faced fertility struggles and had three failed attempts at embryo-making.
She visited several in vitro fertilization clinics around the Bay Area, but all in vain.
She began to question if she would ever become a mother.
After much trial and error, Nicole finally became pregnant and welcomed her first child with Sergey, a daughter in 2018.
Nicole and Sergey’s daughter, who is 5 year old, was born in the same year they got married.
Since her struggle, Nicole Shanahan is a strong advocate for justice, particularly for women’s fertility.
Nicole always remained open about her own struggles with infertility, which included multiple unsuccessful attempts at freezing embryos and countless visits to the doctor.
In 2019, Nicole gave a moving speech at the launch of the Center for Female Reproductive Longevity and Equality, sharing her personal story to raise awareness about the issue.
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Divorce
Sergey Brin, one of the co-founders of Google and one of the richest people in the world with a net worth of $95.8 billion, filed for divorce from his wife, Nicole Shanahan, in early January 2022, citing “irreconcilable differences.”
After three years of marriage and a daughter, the couple’s divorce came as a surprise to many.
Brin requested joint custody of their daughter in the divorce filing and asked that their joint assets be divided in the proceedings.
Their prenup agreement dictated that the property distribution be kept confidential and fall under binding arbitration. Brin did not seek spousal support from Shanahan, nor did he request any for her.
To ensure their daughter’s privacy and shield her from media attention, the couple opted to hire a private judge to dissolve their marriage.
While the divorce reason listed in their court documents was irreconcilable differences, sources speculate that a pesky rumor was the actual cause of the split.
Nicole reportedly had an affair with another bigger billionaire, Elon Musk.
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Did Nicole and Elon Musk Have An Affair?
There were rumors circulating on the internet that Nicole Shanahan had been cheating on Sergey Brin with Elon Musk. And when Sergey found out about it, he wanted a divorce.
However, both Shanahan and Musk denied the allegations for valid reasons.
Shanahan’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, released a statement calling the rumors “fake” and “defamatory.” He clarified that there was no affair between Shanahan and Musk, and any suggestion otherwise is a lie and actionable.
Musk also denied the rumors on Twitter about a company he now owns.
Elon responded to the rumors via a tweet, saying that he and Brin are friends and had only seen Shanahan twice in the last three years.
Musk further clarified, saying that there were many other people present both times and nothing romantic.
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Divorce Settlement
High profile divorce carry more than just reputation with them; it also carries a lot of money with it.
When Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates got divorce from their partners, both paid nearly half of their fortune to their significant others.
But Sergey and Nicole’s case became a little different.
According to reports, Shanahan and Brin had signed a prenuptial agreement. Because of this, there was some heat during the settlement discussion. Shanahan reportedly sought more than $1 billion in the settlement.
In an interesting turn of events, months before their separation, the couple had purchased a $13.5 million home in Malibu.
This became an unwise decision, as real estate is one of the more complex assets to divide fairly during a divorce.
It is possible that the couple may have sold their Malibu home and divided the profits as part of the settlement. However, the details of their property division remain undisclosed.
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Where is Nicole Married Today?
As for Nicole’s current personal life, Nicole appears to be highly personal and prefers to stay lowkey. She only has one social media profile and that is Twitter.
Her account’s handle name is @NicoleShanahan. She created her account in the year 2009 but has only 12 tweets and 845 followers so far. Additionally, the last time she used the platform was back in 2017.
Ever since the divorce, it appears that Nicole Shanahan is solely focusing on her 5 year old daughter and her career. There is no news on her getting back into dating and relationships.
Education
Nicole completed her elementary schooling at Oakland Elementary School.
After that, she joined the University of Puget Sound in 2003 and majored in Asian Studies and community involvement.
Shahnan graduated from the University of Puget Sound in 2007.
The same year, Nicole joined the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies.
Similarly, she also holds the “World Trade Organization (WTO) certificate from the Geneva Graduate Institute.
Furthermore, Shanahan joined the “National University of Singapore” in 2013. She studied Chinese law and international IP trading.
Lastly, Nicole joined Santa Clara University School of Law. From there, she earned a Juris Doctor degree in intellectual property, litigation, and high technology.
While at SCUS, she also served as a journal editor and associate.
Brief Internship at CodeX
Nicole Shanahan is proud of her achievement of having interned and currently working as a fellow at CodeX.
CodeX is a Stanford Center of Legal Informatics, a joint initiative of Stanford Law School and Computer Science.
She established the Smart Prosecution Project. Her project established a cross-disciplinary effort in partnership with district attorneys and community organizations. Doing so helped integrate data science into the prosecutorial process.
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Early Career and Accomplishments
Back in 2006–2007, Nicole joined the International Practice Group at Aeon Law and Longan Law Firm. There, she worked as an IP paralegal and a consultant.
After that, she worked as a patent specialist at Townsend, Townsend, and Crew LLP. She also worked briefly in the same position at RPX Corporation.
She has other experience working for Rutan & Tucker, LLP, as a database specialist.
Similarly, she also worked at PDB Patent Data and optimized their patent data efforts.
Moreover, Nicole launched the first live beta of the “Zero Touch Patent Docketing” service. This service helps patent trial attorneys and in-house patent management groups.
Starting ClearAccessIP
In 2013, Nicole established “ClearAccessIP” as a CEO. Another company called IPWE later acquired it in 2020.
ClearAccessIP develops IP management solutions and supports all the essential decisions made for the technology transfer and patent.
The company’s mission and achievements stem from specializing in the use of artificial intelligence, structured databases, APIs, UI/UX, automation, and SaaS in legal applications.
The company is highly successful and has received several notable achievements in its field.
Nicole’s still serves as the CEO for ClearAccessIP and oversees all the operations of the APIs, UI/UX, automation, SaaS, AI and brings in new ideas to ensure the company is ever evolving.
At Bia-Echo Foundation
Nicole is the founder and president of the Bia-Echo Foundation. The company focuses on preserving the world’s ecosystem and sustainable development.
During the initial days, Shanahan herself has donated over $100 millions to the cause and is highly active in the field.
The goal of the Bia-Echo Foundation is to “invest in changemakers at the forefront of innovation.”
It prioritizes the crucial fields of reproductive equity, longevity, and fairness in criminal justice.
Shanahan is self-employed and the president of the Bia-Echo Foundation. She has been contributing by bringing in changemakers to the front to support their initiative to tackle the world’s tough challenges.
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Nicole Shanahan Net worth and Lifestyle
According to the sources, Nicole Shanahan’s estimated net worth is about $150 million.
The majority of Nicole’s fortune came through her role as CEO of ClearAccessIP (CAIP).
Nicole Shanahan lives a luxurious life. The now-divorced pair had acquired a property worth $13.5 million. So, it is no surprise that Nicole’s lifestyle is rich.
But as rich as she may be, she is also a philanthropist and has donated millions to the needed platforms. As mentioned, she has donated over $100 million to social causes and organizations.
