Martin Jose Gonzalez

Bio

Martin is an Org and Talent Development Principal at Google, closely supporting its AI research organizations (including Google DeepMind, AI Research, Technology and Society, Core Engineering). In his nearly 10 year tenure at Google, he’s worked with leadership teams across its most important product areas including YouTube, Search, Cloud, Payments, Pixel, Fitbit. He works with Google’s senior leaders to shape their org’s culture, grow their people and build cool things that matter.

He is also the creator of Google for Startup’s Effective Founders Project, a global research project that uses people analytics to understand what makes the best startup founders succeed, and shares their success formula with the world. He has run leadership courses and mentored thousands of tech startup founders, from seed stage to unicorn, across more than 70 countries in the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Europe. He is the author of The Bonfire Moment: Bring Your Team Together to Solve the Hardest Issues Startups Face.

He’s a frequent lecturer at MBA and Engineering programs at Stanford, Wharton, and INSEAD. Before Google, he was a strategy and organization consultant at Boston Consulting Group’s Asia Pacific consulting practice, and a product manager at Johnson & Johnson, Philippines. He’s advised C-Suite executives across a wide range of industries such as consumer goods and retail, healthcare, industrial goods, tourism, financial services, telecommunications and now technology.

His research areas include the psychology of startup teams, the impact of AI on organizational life, and org design in hyper-growth environments.

Martin holds two master’s degrees in organizational psychology and behavioral science from Columbia University and the London School of Economics.

He’s lived and worked in New York, Jakarta, Singapore, Taipei and Manila where he is originally from. Today, he lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and three kids.

Current Role at Stanford

I teach the winter course Design 276: Designing Org Culture with Kursat Ozenc, and have been a frequent guest lecturer at the MBA core course HRMGT 210: Organizational Analytics with Julien Clements and OB 518: Leading Through Culture with Glenn Carroll.

Education & Certifications

• MSc, London School of Economics and Political Science, Behavioral Science
• MA, Columbia University, Learning and Leadership
• BA, University of Asia and the Pacific, Integrated Marketing