Mo Gawdat

Mo has a career of 27 years, starting at IBM Egypt as a Systems Engineer before moving to a sales role in the government sector. Venturing into the UAE, Mo joined NCR Abu Dhabi to cover the non-finance sector. He then became acquainted with the consumer goods industry as Regional Manager of BAT. At Microsoft he assumed various roles over a span of seven and a half years; in his last role there he headed the Communications Sector across Emerging Markets worldwide.

Mo joined Google in 2007 to kick-start its business in Emerging Markets. Over a period of six years, Mo started close to half of Google’s operations worldwide. In 2013 he moved to Google’s infamous innovation arm, Google [X] where he led its business strategy, planning, sales, business development and partnerships.

Alongside his career, Mo has remained a serial entrepreneur who has cofounded more than 20 businesses in fields such as health and fitness, food and beverage and real estate. He has served as a board member in several technology, health and fitness and consumer goods companies as well as several government technology and innovation boards in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. He is mentoring tens of start-ups at any given point in time.

Mo Gawdat is the author of “Solve for Happy: Engineering Your Path to Joy” (2017).