Who is Nicole Shanahan, the philanthropist picked by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as his running mate?

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has picked Nicole Shanahan, a California lawyer and philanthropist who's never held elected office, to be his running mate in his independent bid for president, he announced on Tuesday.

An unconventional choice, Shanahan, who is 38, brings youth and considerable wealth to Kennedy's long-shot campaign but is little known outside Silicon Valley.

Shanahan leads Bia-Echo Foundation, an organization she founded to direct money toward issues including women's reproductive science, criminal justice reform and environmental causes. She also is a Stanford University fellow and was the founder and chief executive of ClearAccessIP, a patent management firm that was sold in 2020.

Shanahan was married to Google co-founder Sergey Brin from 2018 to 2023, and they have a young daughter. She was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, where Kennedy made his announcement.