Marian R. Croak
Lead Developer of Voice Over Internet Protocol
Marian R. Croak may not be a household name, but the technologies she helped develop have narrowed the world through a revolutionary communication method: VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). Marian rose to become the vice president of engineering at Google, making her one of the highest-ranking people among its 200,000+ workforce (including contract workers). She also holds over 200 patents, nearly half of which relate to VoIP. The technology allows people to make calls over the internet through a computer, and many large corporations have adopted the service.
Marian R. Croak was born in Pennsylvania in 1955, but she carefully guards her private life, particularly her early years. During a summit, she revealed she grew up in New York. As a young girl, when things broke in the house, her father usually called repair people, who were always men. Marian admits to being fascinated by these experts as she followed them around the house while they tinkered with things. This experience sparked her desire to be a “fixer.”
“That has stayed with me all my life,” Marian recalled. “And it has served me very well.”
Marian attended Catholic schools until the tenth grade. That's when she decided to switch to a local public school, which cultivated her passion for math and science. Marian thrived in that environment, which initiated her interest in science experiments. She rounded out her education by attending Princeton and the University of Southern California. Marian holds a PhD in quantitative analysis (now data science) and social psychology.
“I finished my graduate studies on a Friday,” Marian said, “and I started working at Bell Labs as a systems engineer the following Monday. That was in 1982, and I haven’t stopped yet.”
While at AT&T, Marian performed various functions related to network engineering, as well as voice and data communication. With the dawn of the internet, she shifted her focus to internet protocol technology. The AT&T brass gave her pushback. They didn’t like the thought of replacing voice technology that routed phone calls over traditional telephone networks with internet routing. In time, Marian and her team were able to pull support for the shift to internet calls. AT&T then merged the voice and IP networking teams of around 2,000 individuals, with Marian at the head to create the new network. VoIP, the technology she helped create, has since been used to make text-based donations amounting to tens of millions of dollars. These digital donations were critical during several high-profile disasters, such as those caused by Hurricane Katrina and the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.
“With the dawn of the internet, she shifted her focus to internet protocol technology.”
Marian held several senior positions with AT&T before leaving the company for Google, where she was hired as vice president of engineering. The mother of three adult children, Marian was inducted into the Women in Technology Hall of Fame in 2013. She continues to inspire creative minds and remains committed to expanding and improving technology.
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