Matt Brittin. Image: © IAB UK/Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
The Google exec first joined the search giant in 2007 as the managing director of operations in the UK and Ireland.
President of Google EMEA Matt Brittin has announced he’s stepping down after 10 years in the role and 18 years in total at the company.
In a post on X, he said he’s proud to have led the region and the people in it, while on LinkedIn he added: “It has been an enormous privilege to build our teams, relationships and business in this region”.
Brittin first came to Google in 2007 and was appointed managing director of operations in the UK and Ireland, a post he held for more than four years. In 2011, he became the VP of Northern and Central Europe until settling into his current role in 2014.
“When I joined Google, fewer than one in five people were online. Today, nearly 70pc have the world’s information in their hands and the opportunities that come with it. Jobs, growth and exports are at the centre,” he said.
Brittin said he would continue to lead the company’s EMEA business until a successor is appointed before taking a break for “the first time since leaving school”.
“It’s a pivotal moment to be passing the baton. We’re only just starting to glimpse the transformative benefit that AI will have on billions of lives – and people in our part of the world are showing the way.”
Brittin has been vocal about championing AI. Earlier this year, he told the Deloitte and Enders Media & Telecoms 2024 and Beyond Conference in London that the media need to play its role in reporting the positive benefits of AI.
He also wrote a letter published in the Financial Times last month in support of a report from former Italian prime minister Mario Draghi, which called for an annual spending boost of €800bn to prevent a “slow and agonising decline” economically.
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Matt Brittin. Image: © IAB UK/Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
