Mo Gawdat

Mohammad "Mo" Gawdat  (Arabic: محمد جودت) is an Egyptian entrepreneur and writer. He previously served as chief business officer for Google X and is the author of the books Solve for Happy and Scary Smart.

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

Career
Gawdat's background is in engineering, paired with an MBA degree from Maastricht School of Management in the Netherlands.

He began his career 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. At Microsoft, he held various roles over a span of seven-and-a-half years.

He joined Google in 2007, and eventually rose to the position of chief business officer at Google X.

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.

In 2021, Gawdat published Scary Smart: The Future of Artificial Intelligence and How You Can Save Our World through Macmillan.

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, after an appendectomy.