“I think it expands people’s minds to travel,” said Tara Bunch, Global Head of Operations at Airbnb. “You have an opportunity [to] explore neighborhoods, to get kind of off the beaten path, to meet people, to go to new places that are not necessarily like big tourist destinations.” That mindset drives Bunch’s work leading Airbnb’s Community Support, Trust, and Payments teams ensuring seamless support for users in over 220 countries and managing transactions in 63 currencies. Known for championing thoughtful, user-first product design, Bunch has been instrumental in Airbnb’s push to serve the next wave of travelers, including Gen Z and LGBTQ+ communities. Her work reflects a deep understanding of how diversity shapes consumer needs and how platforms can and should adapt to meet them.
Bunch was born in Central California to a father who worked as a mechanical engineer and a mother in school system IT, early exposure that naturally led her to technology. She earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley, and later, an MBA from Santa Clara University. Her professional journey began at Hewlett-Packard, followed by an eight-year tenure at Apple, where she rose to Vice President of AppleCare. At Airbnb, she oversees user experience at scale—addressing safety, trust, and global customer engagement while also championing workplace inclusion as executive sponsor of AirPride and Trans@.
When Airbnb discovered lower booking acceptance rates for users of color, Bunch’s teams helped introduce policy and product changes to reduce bias, such as de-emphasizing profile photos and enabling preferred names for trans users. “These are all things that come from people’s sense of what’s right,” she said. “You have to have that diversity of thought to come up with these types of solutions.” Whether driving product updates or cross-country with her six kids, Bunch believes in travel as a force for connection and in building systems that make that connection equitable for all.