Google’s departing EMEA president is a former Olympian and likes to kick off his morning rowing on the river Thames

Matt Brittin, Google’s president, EMEA, is a flag bearer for management and resilience. He joined Google in 2007 as managing director for the U.Ok., rising by means of the ranks to his present function in 2014.  

Throughout his decade-long time period on the prime of Google in Europe, he deftly weathered public storms round how a lot tax Google paid within the U.Ok., and grew the area’s revenues to a 3rd of Google’s complete income worldwide.  

Brittin is a former Olympian, having represented Group GB in 1988. And when he can discover the time, he begins his days with a row close to his residence in west London.  

Forward of Brittin’s departure from Google on the finish of 2024, we sat down with him on the Fortune CEO Discussion board in London. 

This interview has been edited for brevity.

Right down to enterprise

Fortune: What international development are you centered on?

AI. It’s the mission of constructing AI responsibly to assist humanity and profit humanity.

It’s essential that we develop it nicely. We innovate to go after the largest advantages, however we additionally construct it responsibly.  

For those who have been an financial policymaker, what can be your prime precedence? 

We want regulation for know-how, and it’s laborious to get it proper. So we want guidelines of the street.  

Europe’s been on the forefront: lots of of items of regulation round digital know-how within the final 5 years, and so they’re all being carried out at totally different speeds, in numerous methods, in numerous nations. However the EU has additionally labored laborious on issues like information safety, GDPR, and the AI Act to attempt to place frameworks.  

So, from our standpoint at Google, what’s good is, at the very least there’s some readability. The problem is that it’s an extremely sophisticated rule ebook for anyone. We’ve acquired the dimensions to have the ability to get attorneys on it, and even for us, it’s difficult.  

However think about when you’re a European startup, and this is likely one of the questions that’s been on my thoughts for 18 years at Google—why have we not acquired Massive Tech firms from Europe?  

Being productive

What time do you stand up, and what units you up for the day? 

I often stand up between 6 a.m. and seven a.m., and my ideally suited day begins with rowing. I’m not excellent at most sports activities, however I was a rower, and being on the water, often with another person, allowed me to attach and train, which really units a constructive tone for my day. 

What apps or strategies do you employ to be extra productive? 

I like utilizing NotebookLM, which is powered by Gemini [Google’s AI tool].  

You set information into it and ask it to summarize in language even a baby can perceive. It may well even generate a podcast that’s fairly convincing. I did that with the Draghi report, which is 328 pages lengthy, and instructed the platform to supply me with a podcast overlaying the important thing subjects in order that I may hear whereas working.  

How can European leaders shut the productiveness hole with the U.S.? 

The hole is sort of fully about technical innovation and adoption. That’s a wake-up name to European leaders. 

We’ve heard leaders like President Macron, and within the U.Ok., Keir Starmer’s authorities, desirous to harness know-how for good. There’s a second the place political leaders can say, “Hold on, we’re getting this mistaken. We want guidelines of the street, however we additionally want to verify we’re within the race.”  

The regulation challenges are vital, however the potential is huge. We simply noticed the Nobel Prize awarded to 2 of my colleagues [Demis Hassabis and John Jumper] for his or her enormous breakthroughs in drug discovery, illness analysis, and enzymes utilizing AI. And there’s far more coming.  

Getting private

Who’s in your “private board”? 

What I’ve tried to do all through my profession is have a casual community of folks that I can flip to. I believe when you say to any individual, “Will you be my mentor?,” it’s a bit like asking for marriage on a primary date. However when you say, “Hear, I’m wrestling with one thing, can I come and ask you the way you’ve handled it?” 

What ebook have you ever learn, both just lately or prior to now, that has impressed you? 

Why We Sleep, by Matthew Walker. When you’ve got younger kids, don’t learn it. However in any other case, I believe it helped me set up a basis for productiveness, which is, when you don’t take care of sleep, then you definitely actually are in bother.  

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