Alex Algard

Founder and CEO Hiya

Last Reviewed: September 26, 2026

Executive Summary

Alex Algard is founder and chief executive of Hiya, the Seattle company that identifies phone calls and protects against spam, fraud and AI voice deepfakes for mobile operators, businesses and consumers. Hiya began as the caller ID division of Whitepages, the online people-search company Algard founded in 1996 when he bought the Whitepages.com domain. It was spun out as a separate company in April 2016, and that September Algard handed the Whitepages CEO role to Rob Eleveld so he could run Hiya full time. Hiya says its platform now reaches more than 500 million users. In 2026 it has announced branded-calling deployments with Deutsche Telekom in Germany and with Vodafone in the UK.

Career Highlights

• Founder and CEO of Hiya since it was spun out of Whitepages in April 2016. He is named as an executive officer and director on Hiya’s SEC Form D filings in 2017, 2021 and 2023.
• Founded Whitepages in 1996 by buying the Whitepages.com domain name, reportedly from his Stanford dorm.
• CEO of CarDomain from 2002 to 2006, while stepping away from the Whitepages CEO role.
• Stepped down as Whitepages CEO in September 2016, becoming executive chairman.
• Hiya raised an $18 million Series A through Balderton in October 2017 and acquired the deepfake voice detection company Loccus.ai in July 2024.

Professional Journey

Algard founded Whitepages in 1996, when he bought the Whitepages.com domain name. GeekWire reported that he started the site from his dorm room at Stanford University. Whitepages grew into a Seattle online people-search company that sold advertising and business services built on a database of personal and business identities and records. Algard was its chief executive for most of its first two decades. The exception was 2002 to 2006, when he stepped away to serve as CEO of CarDomain.

Hiya started inside Whitepages as Whitepages Caller ID, a caller identification app for Android phones. The division was spun out as a separate company in 2016. The Seattle Times dates the spin-out to April, while Hiya’s own timeline gives May. In August 2016 Hiya launched Smart Call on Samsung Galaxy phones. In September 2016 Algard named Rob Eleveld, who had run Whitepages Pro, as Whitepages CEO. Algard remained executive chairman of Whitepages and continued as Hiya’s chief executive. “I’m very excited because I think Rob is going to be the better leader, the better CEO for our needs,” he told GeekWire.

Under Algard, Hiya raised an $18 million Series A through Balderton in October 2017. It launched Hiya Connect, a branded-call platform for enterprises, in 2019. Carriers began to adopt its technology, with AT&T in the US, then Telenor Norway, Rogers in Canada, BT, EE and O2 in the UK, and Liberty Latin America. It acquired the deepfake voice detection company Loccus.ai in July 2024 and launched the Hiya AI Phone in January 2025. In 2026 it announced branded calling with Deutsche Telekom in Germany and went live with Vodafone in the UK, which Hiya says extends verified caller identity to nearly all UK mobile subscribers. The company reports more than 150 employees in offices in Seattle, London and Budapest.

Algard presents Hiya’s work as a response to AI-enabled fraud. “We are in an arms race where scammers are using AI as a weapon, which means operators have to use AI as a shield,” he said in the company’s State of the Call 2026 report.

Education

No degree could be verified from a primary or named editorial source. GeekWire reports that he founded Whitepages from his Stanford University dorm, which places him at Stanford, but the degrees he earned there are not recorded here.