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Debby Soo

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Debby Soo
Born1980 or 1981 (age 45–46)[1]
EducationMBA
Alma materStanford University, MIT
OccupationBusiness executive
EmployerOpenTable

Debby Soo is an American business executive serving since 2020 as the CEO of OpenTable, a global online restaurant-reservation service.[2] She has overseen the company’s operations during a period of significant change in the restaurant industry, particularly in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.[3]

Early life and education

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Soo was born in Daly City, California into a blue collar family.[4][5] Her parents, Ken and Carol Soo, who had immigrated from Taiwan on a lottery visa in the early 1980s, raised her in a two-bedroom apartment with her maternal grandparents and a maternal aunt and uncle.[4][1][5][6] She was an only child.[5]

Soo's father worked as a group tour guide for Taiwanese tourists to the US, and then her parents started a travel agency that specialized in such tours.[4][5] Her father worked primarily in Asia and her mother managed the business in the US.[6] The agency became successful and the family moved to Foster City and then to Hillsborough.[5] She attended Nueva School and Lick-Wilmerding High School.[5] She graduated from Stanford University with a major in East Asian studies.[4][6] During her undergraduate work at Stanford, she interned in Hong Kong for Deutsche Bank.[7] She has an MBA degree from MIT's Sloan School of Management.[4][1] In 2010, during her MBA, she interned for Estée Lauder.[8]

Career

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Soo first worked in investment banking.[4] She worked for Citibank and Google Maps.[1]

Soo became an intern at Kayak.[9][10][1] In 2013 she was the senior director of new markets.[11] By 2015, Soo was the head of the company's Asia Pacific division.[8] She eventually became CCO.[9][12]

Soo became CEO of OpenTable in the summer of 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic's disruption of the restaurant industry worldwide.[8][13][14][3] She pivoted the business model from focussing on diners to focussing on restaurants as the company's primary customer and created partnerships with Visa and JPMorgan Chase.[4][1] She refocussed the company's software on providing restaurants information about diners such as previous dishes ordered, birthdays, anniversaries, and social media profiles.[1][15] According to Bloomberg Businessweek, the company showed revenue growth in the double digits in 2025 and had quadrupled its share price from 2020.[1]

Personal life

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As of 2026 Soo lived in Hillsborough, California.[12] She is married and has two sons.[5][7] She speaks Chinese.[1][6]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Crane, Brent (1 May 2026). "A Walk With". Bloomberg Businessweek (4843): 20–21.
  2. ^ London, Lela (18 July 2025). "OpenTable CEO Debby Soo On What It Really Means To Serve A Service Industry". Forbes. Retrieved 2 May 2026.
  3. ^ a b Crane, Brent (17 April 2026). "OpenTable Won Over the Wrong Customers, Then Changed Course". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2 May 2026.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Reis, Meredith (15 July 2025). "Debby Soo: The Female CEO Who Redefined OpenTable". HerMoney. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g Lu, Dave (15 July 2025). "Debby Soo". davelu.com. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
  6. ^ a b c d "Debby Soo Transcript". Cherry Bombe. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
  7. ^ a b "Debby Soo on Leading OpenTable, Landing Impossible Reservations & Owning Your Ambition". Apple Podcasts. Retrieved 1 May 2026.
  8. ^ a b c Conrad, Jennifer (25 June 2024). "How 3 Asian American Women Conquered the C-Suite at OpenTable". Inc.
  9. ^ a b Thorn, Bret (12 August 2020). "Debby Soo replaces Steve Hafner as CEO of OpenTable". Nation's Restaurant News. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
  10. ^ Biesiada, Jamie (26 March 2018). "From intern to executive, Kayak's new CCO has grown with the company". Travel Weekly. 77 (12): 56–56.
  11. ^ Constantino, Annika Kim (10 November 2022). "Your boss denied your promotion request. Here's a CEO's simple advice for what to do next". CNBC. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
  12. ^ a b Kaminer, Michael. "AI Is Coming to a Restaurant Near You, Says OpenTable CEO Debby Soo". Barrons. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
  13. ^ Walchef, Shawn P. (9 December 2025). "This Is the 'Worst Thing' CEOs Can Do, According to the Head of OpenTable". Entrepreneur.
  14. ^ Hinchliffe, Emma; Ajemian, Nina. "OpenTable's CEO fights the myth of the impossible reservation". Fortune. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
  15. ^ Krishna, Priya (14 May 2025). "The Five-Figure Reason Hot Restaurants Are Moving to OpenTable". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 30 April 2026.
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