Mo Gawdat
Mohammad "Mo" Gawdat (Arabic: محمد جودت) is an Egyptian entrepreneur and writer. He is the former chief business officer for Google X and author of the book Solve for Happy.[1][2]
Mo Gawdat | |
|---|---|
| Born | 20 June 1967 |
| Nationality |  Egypt |
| Alma mater | Maastricht School of Management |
| Occupation | Author
Entrepreneur |
Early life
Gawdat was born in Egypt, the son of a civil engineer and an English professor. He showed early interest in technology.[3]
Career
Gawdat's background is as an engineer, paired with an MBA degree from Maastricht School of Management in the Netherlands.
He has a career of 27 years, starting at IBM Egypt as a systems engineer before moving to a sales role in the government sector. Moving to the United Arab Emirates, he joined NCR Abu Dhabi to cover the non-finance sector. He then became regional manager of BAT. At Microsoft, he assumed various roles over a span of seven and a half years; in his last role at Microsoft, he headed the communications sector across emerging markets worldwide.
Gawdat joined Google in 2007 to start its business in Emerging Markets.
In 2013, he moved to Google's innovation arm, Google X, where he led the business strategy, planning, sales, business development, and partnerships.
Gawdat is the author of Solve for Happy: Engineering Your Path to Joy (2017). Dedicated to his son Ali who died in 2014, the book outlines methods for managing and preventing disappointment.[4]
Personal life
Gawdat is separated from his wife Nibal, whom he met at university. Their daughter is called Aya. Their son Ali died in 2014.[5]
References
- Blair, Olivia. "One man's mathematical formula for happiness", The Independent, April 11, 2017.
- Tucker, Ian (2017-04-30). "Google's Mo Gawdat: 'Happiness is like keeping fit. You have to work out'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-05-11.
- Rifkind, Hugo. "Can this man save the world from artificial intelligence?".
- Joung, Frank (2017-12-19). "Formel für Zufriedenheit "Glück ist, wenn das Gehirn die Klappe hält"". Spiegel Online (in German). Retrieved 2017-12-22.
- Rifkind, Hugo. "Can this man save the world from artificial intelligence?".
Further reading
- The man who invented a happiness algorithm — and learnt to cope with his son’s sudden death (The Times - March 28, 2017).
- One man's mathematical formula for happiness (The Independent - April 10, 2017).
- New book uses an engineering approach to find happiness (ABC NEWS - April 10, 2017).
- Google exec seeks the equation for happiness (Channel 4 - April 9, 2017).
- Can this man save the world from artificial intelligence? (The Times, September 29 2021) Mo Gawdat is the Silicon Valley supergeek who believes we face an apocalyptic threat from artificial intelligence.