Mohammad "Mo" Gawdat (Arabic: محمد جودت) is an Egyptian entrepreneur and writer. He is the former chief business officer for

Google X X Development LLC (formerly Google X) is an American semi-secret research and development facility and organization founded by Google in January 2010, which now operates as a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. X has its headquarters about a mile and ...

and author of the book ''Solve for Happy''.

Early life

Gawdat was born in Egypt, the son of a civil engineer and an English professor. He showed early interest in technology.

Career

Gawdat's background is as an engineer, paired with an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accoun ...

degree from Maastricht School of Management in the Netherlands. He began his career at IBM Egypt as a systems engineer, before migrating to a sales role in the government sector. Moving to the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia ( The Middle East). It is located at ...

, he joined NCR Abu Dhabi to cover the non-finance sector. At

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation, multinational technology company, technology corporation producing Software, computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at th ...

, he assumed various roles over a span of seven-and-a-half years. Gawdat joined

Google Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

in 2007 to start its business in emerging markets. In 2013, he moved to Google's innovation arm,

, where he led 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.

Personal life

Gawdat is separated from his wife, Nibal, whom he met at university. They have a daughter, Aya. Their son, Ali, died in 2014.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gawdat, Mo 1967 births Living people Egyptian businesspeople Egyptian writers Egyptian emigrants to the United States Google employees