# Aaron Bell

> Aaron Bell is a software engineer and entrepreneur who co-founded AdRoll, later known as NextRoll, served as its CEO and chief product officer, and subsequently joined Google Research to work on climate and weather AI. His career includes Microsoft, NASA-related projects at Stottler Henke, and co-authorship of WeatherBench 2, Global MetNet and Earth AI research.

- **Role:** Engineering Director, Climate & Weather at Google Research; co-founder and board member at NextRoll
- **Organizations:** Google Research, NextRoll, AdRoll, Stottler Henke Associates, Microsoft
- **Education:** BS, Computer Science, Stanford University
- **Known for:** Co-founded AdRoll and led it as CEO before becoming chief product officer., AdRoll reported 35,000 clients and approximately 500 employees at the November 2017 CEO transition., Co-authored WeatherBench 2, an open evaluation framework for global weather forecasting.

## Career timeline

- **1994-1999** — Software development engineer at Microsoft; began while in high school.
- **1996-2000** — Studied computer science at Stanford University.
- **2002-2007** — Worked at Stottler Henke on artificial intelligence systems, including NASA-related projects.
- **2005** — Co-authored EarthTutor research on intelligent tutoring and remote sensing.
- **2007** — AdRoll began operating; Bell was a co-founder and later CEO.
- **2013** — Announced AdRoll’s acquisition of Bitdeli.
- **2014** — AdRoll announced $70 million funding led by Foundation Capital.
- **2017-11** — Moved from CEO to chief product officer; Toby Gabriner became CEO.
- **2019** — Joined Google Research; continued a NextRoll board connection.
- **2023** — Co-authored the WeatherBench 2 preprint.
- **2025** — Co-authored Global MetNet nowcasting and Earth AI research.

## Achievements

- Co-founded AdRoll and led it as CEO before becoming chief product officer.
- AdRoll reported 35,000 clients and approximately 500 employees at the November 2017 CEO transition.
- Co-authored WeatherBench 2, an open evaluation framework for global weather forecasting.
- Co-authored Global MetNet research describing operational satellite-based rainfall forecasts.
- Co-authored Earth AI research combining geospatial models and reasoning.

## Latest updates

- **2025-10** — Named among the authors of An Operational Deep Learning System for Satellite-Based High-Resolution Global Nowcasting, submitted October 15, 2025.
- **2025-10** — Named among the authors of the Earth AI geospatial foundation-model and reasoning preprint.

## Links

- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronbelll
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/aaaron

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/aaron-bell
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-10-26