Tech giant, Google, has appointed James Manyika, a Zimbabwean national, as the company’s first Senior Vice President of Technology and Society.
As the Senior Vice President of Google, James Manyika will focus on the AI, future of work, digital economy, computing infrastructure, sustainability, and areas with potential for broad impact on society. He will be reporting directly to Sundar Pichai, Google’s Chief Executive Officer.
In a press statement made by Google, Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai expressed his excitement on James Manyika’s appointment and was thrilled to have the African onboard.
I’m thrilled that James Manyika will be joining Google’s leadership team. He’s spent decades working at the intersection of technology and society and has advised a number of businesses, academic institutions and governments along the way, Google’s Chief Executive Officer Sundra Puchai said.
James Manyika is also a Visiting Professor at Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government, and a member of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine’s Committee on Responsible Computing Research and its Applications. He also serves on the board of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and on research institute boards at Oxford, MIT, LSE, Toronto, and Stanford. He obtained his first degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Zimbabwe. He then proceeded to the University of Oxford where he earned a number of postgraduate degrees, including a doctorate in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics.
James Manyika has nearly 30 years of academic and working experience in various fields of studies and research. He worked at McKinsey & Company where he was promoted to quite a number of high profile positions, including Chairman/Director of McKinsey Global Institute.
James Manyika also serves on the boards of many other organisations, including the Aspen Institute, Khan Academy, MacArthur Foundation, William and Flora Hewlette Foundation, Broad Institute of MIT & Harvard, Council on Foreign Relations, etc.