Google has hired James Manyika as the company’s first SVP of Technology and Society. He will report to Sundar Pichai.

As the SVP of Technology and Society, Manyika will focus on the AI, future of work, digital economy, computing infrastructure, sustainability, and areas with potential for broad impact on society.

Manyika was a Senior Partner at McKinsey, and Chair and Director of the McKinsey Global Institute. Over his last 25 years at Silicon Valley, Manyika has advised the chief executives of the leading tech companies. He also led the McKinsey Global Institute for over 12 years, including leading research on AI and the impact of technology on business, the economy and on work, as well as on other global and societal trends. He has published two books – one on AI and robotics.

Manyika was also appointed by President Obama as Vice-Chair of the Global Development Council at the White House, and by two US Commerce Secretaries to the Digital Economy Board and the National Innovation Board. He serves on the board of the Council on Foreign Relations and is a member of the Trilateral Commission.

He is 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.

A Rhodes Scholar, James has a DPhil, MSc with distinction and MA from Oxford in AI and robotics, mathematics, and computer science, a BSc first class in electrical engineering from the University of Zimbabwe.