Mo Gawdat is the former Chief Business Officer for Google [X], a serial entrepreneur, author of Solve for Happy, and founder of One Billion Happy.
Mo has an impressive combined career of 27 years, starting at IBM Egypt as a Systems Engineer before moving to a sales role in the government sector. Venturing in to 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 at Microsoft he headed the Communications Sector across Emerging Markets worldwide.
Mo joined Google in 2007 to kick-start its business in Emerging Markets. He is fascinated by the role that technology plays in empowering people in emerging communities and has dedicated years of his career towards that passion. Over a period of 6 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 the business strategy, planning, sales, business development and partnerships. [X] does not attempt to achieve incremental improvements in the way the world works, but instead, it tries to develop new technologies that will reinvent the way things are and deliver a radical, ten fold—10X—improvement. This leads to seemingly SciFi ideas such as: Project Loon, which aims to use high-altitude balloons to provide affordable internet access to the 5 billion people on every square inch of our planet, Project Makani, aiming to revolutionize wind energy generation using autonomous carbon fiber kites as well as Self driving cars, Google Life Sciences, and many more. The business team under Mo’s leadership has designed innovative business models analogous to the disruptive technologies [X] creates, and has created deep partnerships and global deals that enabled [X] to thrive and build products fit for the real world.
Alongside his career, Mo 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 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 mentors tens of start-ups at any point in time.
Mo Gawdat is the author of “Solve for Happy: Engineer Your Path to Joy” (2017). Through his 12 year research on the topic of happiness, he created an algorithm and a repeatable well engineered model to reach a state of uninterrupted happiness regardless of the circumstances of life. Mo’s happiness model proved highly effective. And, in 2014, was put to the ultimate test when Mo lost his son Ali to preventable medical error during a simple surgical procedure. Solve for Happy is the pillar for a mission
Mo has committed to as his personal moonshot, a mission to deliver his happiness message to on billion people around the world (#onebillionhappy).
In 2020, Mo launched his successful podcast, Slo Mo: A Podcast with Mo Gawdat, in which he conducts interviews that explore the extraordinary lives of everyday people.
His book, Scary Smart, was released in September 30, 2021and That Little Voice in Your Head, a practical manual on how to retrain our brains for optimal joy, was released in spring 2022.
That Little Voice in Your Head is the practical guide to retraining your brain for optimal joy by Mo Gawdat, the internationally bestselling author of Solve for Happy. Mo reveals how by beating negative self-talk, we can change our thought processes, turning our greed into generosity, our apathy into compassion and investing in our own happiness.
This book provides readers with exercises to help reshape their mental processes. Drawing on his expertise in programming and his knowledge of neuroscience, Mo explains how – despite their incredible complexity – our brains behave in ways that are largely predictable. From these insights, he delivers this user manual for happiness.
Inspired by the life of his late son, Ali, Mo Gawdat has set out to share a model for happiness based on generosity and empathy towards ourselves and others. Using his experience as a former Google engineer and Chief Business Officer, Mo shares his ‘code’ for reprogramming our brain and moving away from the misconceptions modern life gives us.
Speaking Topics
Mo tailors his talks to your particular audience. All bookings include a content alignment call with Mo in the weeks leading up to the event to ensure a smooth and impactful engagement.
Solve for Happy
In this seminal talk, Mo Gawdat aims to offer an Engineering approach to happiness based on his International bestselling book, Solve for Happy.
The talk discusses the biggest myth we believe about happiness in the modern world and how to overcome the reasons for unhappiness. It offers a solid model to work with, the 6-7-5 model, and takes the audience through practical actions they can take then and there to start their journey on a path to
uninterrupted happiness.
At the end of the talk, attendees are left with a much clearer understanding of the steps they need to take in order to find happiness even in the harshest of circumstances; and with a clear call to action to invest in their own happiness and the happiness of those they love.
Scary Smart: The Future of Technology, AI, Robotics, and Ethics
In this popular talk, Mo Gawdat openly discusses – through the lens of a former executive at Google [X] -the current rate of advancement of technology and the expected technological innovation that will follow in the next 10 to 20 years. Providing a 30-year tech insider’s overview of the state of technology present and future, Mo goes on to address the pressing ethical question this impending science fiction like reality will bring. If Artificial Intelligence learns from humans, how do we prevent it from imitating
our worst intentions? How do we raise this potentially destructive child in a way that ensures the continued success (and survival) of humanity in this brand-new world?
At the end of this talk, the audience will be given a unique, accurate insider’s view of the incredible – and in many ways, worrying – wave approaching so they may clearly understand the role each of us has to play to ensure our success as it materializes.
The very essence of what makes us human – happiness, compassion and love – is what will save humanity in the age of the machines.”
Finding Silver Linings in the Face of Crisis
In Mo’s most popular talk during the COVID-19 pandemic, he answers the following questions: We all want to be happy, but life can be hard. What can we do to stay positive and find hope even in the face of loss and adversity?
As Chief Business Officer at Google X, Mo developed “moonshot” ideas to help make the world a better place. Following the tragic death of his son Ali, Mo began a mission to help people become happier. In this unique talk, Mo reflects on the challenges facing our world and shares his secrets for finding silver linings even in a crisis. Mo has discovered that happiness follows a predictable equation and has distilled this into practical actions which are relevant to all of us, no matter our circumstances.
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