Brilliant! Google.org Hires Do-Gooding Doctor; Also: MSN Loses Executive
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Written By Reprise Media | February 22, 2006 | Share This
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It seems unfair to be picking on Google so much, so we’re glad to have some genuinely pleasant Google buzz today. The official Google Blog announced that the search firm’s philanthropic arm has acquired a new executive director: the aptly named Dr. Larry Brilliant, a well-regarded polymath in business, technology and international medicine.
In Google’s press release, Brilliant says he has “great admiration for Google’s technical contributions to society and believe[s] that it can make…an equally great impression through philanthropy.” Sounds like a tall order, but if there’s one thing Dr. Brilliant knows, philanthropy is it. The epidemiologist’s superlative resume includes a ten year stint helping the WHO wipe out smallpox in India, assisting the UN in projects to eliminate blindness and polio, and numerous impressively named accolades, such as UC Berkeley’s “International Health Hero Award.”
Although USA Today thinks the move extends Google’s “maverick reputaion” (terming Dr. Brilliant a “hippie-turned-doctor” and noting his one-time employment with the Grateful Dead), it seems to us that if there’s a drawback to hiring Dr. Brilliant it might be that he’s too busy with other responsibilities to focus his energies on the fledgeling Google.org. The press release says he founded (and is still a director of) The Seva Foundation, and that he’s “a Policy Advisory Council Member at the University of California, Berkeley School of Public Health, and a member of the Strategic Advisory Group of Kleiner-Perkin’s Pandemic and Bio-Defense Fund.” Talk about a full plate.
But while Google’s been bringing several new
people on recently, competitor MSN still seems to be shaking things up. Click Z reports that David Cole - Senior VP, MSN and Personal Services Group - is leaving his post to take a sabbatical. It’s the latest in a string of top departures for MSN, who lost two executives to Yahoo! last year. The article surmises that Cole’s descent “is part of a larger strategy to give the somewhat wobbly portal a fresh start,” and notes that the promotions of Joe Michaels and Rob Bennett (as well as the appointment of John Nicol) seem to be skewing MSN in the direction of video and entertainment. When a 20-year employee like Cole takes a break, even if temporarily, something must be up.
Topics: People on the Move |