A Positive Social Media: Pinterest CEO Bill Ready on Rooting Wellbeing into Online Environments
Join King’s College Provost Gillian Tett for a conversation with Pinterest CEO Bill Ready as they explore the role of positive social media platforms, Pinterest's use of AI, particularly in visual search, and the need for safe online environments, particularly for young people.
Bill Ready is the CEO of Pinterest and serves on its board of directors. Under his leadership, Pinterest is becoming the go-to visual search and discovery platform for people around the world. Ready’s vision for Pinterest is rooted in positivity and wellbeing. The company has been at the forefront of tech companies calling for distraction-free schools, age verification on phones, and youth online safety overall. He is a proven and visionary leader, with experience in past roles as President of Commerce and Payments at Google, COO at PayPal, CEO at Venmo and Braintree, as well as leadership roles at five startups. Ready holds a Bachelor of Science in Information Systems, and Finance from the University of Louisville and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Background and Accomplishments
Under Bill’s leadership, Pinterest is showing that responsible innovation and business success can go hand in hand.
He believes that social media should be additive, not addictive – fostering positive experiences instead of the engagement-at-all-costs to keep people glued to the app.
Bill is the only tech CEO to call for phone free schools
Pinterest introduced an in-app prompt in the US, Canada, UK and France that encourages minors to close Pinterest and turn off phone notifications if they open Pinterest during school hours
Pinterest was the first major platform to go from public to private only accounts for users under 16s.
Bill has called for OS-level age verification for phones.
He has called for AI regulation in contrast to most other tech companies that have actively been lobbying to prevent and restrict stronger AI regulation in the US, UK and EU.
Making inclusive AI central to Pinterest's user experience.
Users who search with our Inclusive AI tools save on average 75% more pins than users who search without using these tools.
Relevant articles and podcasts:
How Pinterest Is Courting Gen Z With ‘Safer’ Social Media (NY Times)
Business Daily meets: Pinterest CEO Bill Ready (BBC Sounds)
Fixing Social Media with Pinterest CEO Bill Ready (Adam Grant’s ReThinking podcast)
The decision that tanked Pinterest’s stock helped make it a Gen Z winner (Fortune Magazine)
It’s Time to Keep Phones Out of Classrooms (TIME Magazine)
Bill Ready: why social media turned toxic and how we can fix it (Financial Times)
Pinterest CEO: Big Tech must reject Big Tobacco’s model and address social media harms (The Hill)
Gillian Tett is the Provost of King’s College and a member of the FT Editorial Board. She writes weekly columns, covering a range of economic, financial, political and social issues and co-founded Moral Money, the FT sustainability newsletter.
WHEN: Thursday, 11 December 2025
5.30 PM – 6.30 PM: Fireside discussion at Judge Business School
6.30 PM – 7.00 PM: Drinks reception and networking at Judge Business School
WHERE: King’s College, Cambridge
TICKETS: Ticket information will be released in late November.