Mo Gawdat

Mo Gawdat is the Chief Business Officer for X, previously Google X, and is a leading global expert in technology and innovation with the world’s most advanced organization for breakthrough technology.

Mo joined Google in 2007, after many successful years at Microsoft, and he now manages Google’s business in over 50 countries and focusing on his biggest passion; Emerging Markets and the considerable challenges they face with embracing innovation.

Prior to becoming Chief Business Officer at Google X, Mo served as the Vice President of Business Innovation. Remarkably, Mo has started close to half of Google’s operations worldwide. The latest being his role on Project Loon; an ambitious attempt to use high altitude balloons to provide affordable internet access to the remaining 5 billion people for whom today’s existing technology has proven too expensive or too complex to reach.

Mo is also a serial entrepreneur who has cofounded more than 15 businesses in his career. He actively serves as a Board Member in several technology, health and fitness and consumer goods start-ups as well as several government technology and innovation boards in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Considering his vast background, Mohammad speaks Arabic, English, German as well as some Turkish and Russian.

Mo Gawdat is the author of the forthcoming book “Solve for Happy: Engineering Your Path to Uncovering the Joy Inside You” (2017). He created an algorithm for happiness, which proved highly effective. He and his family lived by it for a decade. In 2013, it was put to the ultimate test when Mo lost his son Ali. Mo’s mission now is to share these principles more widely and further the cause of happiness wherever he can.