{"id":10946,"date":"2022-03-04T08:11:27","date_gmt":"2022-03-04T08:11:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/who-is-james-manyika-googles-african-techno-social-asset"},"modified":"2022-03-04T08:11:27","modified_gmt":"2022-03-04T08:11:27","slug":"who-is-james-manyika-googles-african-techno-social-asset","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/who-is-james-manyika-googles-african-techno-social-asset","title":{"rendered":"Who is James Manyika, Google\u2019s African \u2018techno-social\u2019 asset?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>By appointing James Manyika as its senior vice president for technology and society, Google has decided to go for experience. After 30 years at McKinsey, the Zimbabwean is known for his research work in innovation.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a small revolution: Google has appointed its first-ever vice president of technology and society. The lucky man is Zimbabwe\u2019s James Manyika, who left his position as director of the McKinsey Global Institute, the research arm of renowned consulting firm McKinsey & Company, in January.<\/p>\n

Manyika, who is part of Alphabet\u2019s management team and reports directly to CEO Sundar Pichai, will be responsible for \u201cshaping and sharing Google\u2019s views on how technology affects society,\u201d according to a statement from the Mountain View firm.<\/p>\n

More specifically, he will help define Google\u2019s vision on issues such as the future of work, artificial intelligence and sustainable development. These themes are dear to this Harare native, who is recognised for his work at the crossroads between the future of work, artificial intelligence and robotics, as well as experience in the world of Big Tech.<\/p>\n

Rhodes scholar (like Bill Clinton)<\/b><\/p>\n

After studying at Harare\u2019s Prince Edward School, then at the University of Zimbabwe, where he obtained a bachelor\u2019s degree in electrical engineering, Manyika went to Oxford on the Rhodes Scholarship, which allows foreigners to study at the prestigious British university. He acquired several degrees, including a PhD in robotics and artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n

Silicon Valley veteran<\/b><\/p>\n

Manyika joined McKinsey in 1994 and has worked for the consultancy firm for 28 years. The last 20 were spent in the McKinsey Global Institute (MGI) offices in Silicon Valley, where he was appointed director in 2009. In this capacity, the Zimbabwean has advised a number of tech executives.<\/p>\n

Author of economic essays<\/b><\/p>\n

In 1994, while employed as a senior partner at McKinsey, Manyika published Decentralised Data Fusion: An Information Theoretic Approach, a research book about decentralised data collection, which he co-authored with researcher Hugh F.<\/p>\n

Durrant-Whyte. In 2015, he co-wrote an economic essay, No Ordinary Disruption: The Four Global Forces Breaking All the Trends, with two MGI colleagues.<\/p>\n

His work on the future of work is also featured in the bestseller Them: Why We Hate Each Other-And How to Heal, which was published in 2018 by US politician Ben Sasse.<\/p>\n

On the difficulty of being black<\/b><\/p>\n

Appointed by California Governor Gavin Newsom to head the Future of Work Commission in 2019, alongside US trade unionist Mary Kay Henry, he pointed out the unequal treatment that workers in the western US state have been subjected to, which has been exacerbated during the Covid-19 pandemic, in a report published in March 2021. A month earlier, he had analysed the plight of black workers in corporate America in a McKinsey Global Institute report.<\/p>\n

Multi-hatted<\/b><\/p>\n

Manyika is the head of more than 20 different organisations, including think tanks (Council on Foreign Relations, Aspen Institute\u2026), foundations (MacArthur, Hewlett\u2026), academic institutes (Stanford\u2019s Institute for Human-Centered AI, Oxford\u2019s Internet Institute\u2026) and corporate organisations (DeepMind, Khan Academy\u2026). He has also been invited to join many academic associations.<\/p>\n

Mentoring intellectuals<\/b><\/p>\n

Manyika has started a fellowship in his name at Harvard\u2019s Hutchins Centre for African and African American Research. The J. M. D Manyika Fellowship is awarded to intellectuals and artists from Zimbabwe and other southern African countries. Author NoViolet Bulawayo and filmmaker Rumbi Katedza are among the first recipients.<\/p>\n

Obama advisor<\/b><\/p>\n

In 2011, under Barack Obama, Manyika was appointed to the Digital Economy Board and the National Innovation Board, two committees under the US Department of Commerce.<\/p>\n

He stepped down in the summer of 2017 following Donald Trump\u2019s controversial remarks about the violence between white supremacists and anti-racist activists in Charlottesville. He also served as vice-chairman of the US Global Development Council at the White House from 2012 to 2017.<\/p>\n

Married to a writer<\/b><\/p>\n

Manyika is married to author Sarah Ladipo Manyika, who was born in Nigeria and raised in the UK. They met in Harare, Zimbabwe.<\/p>\n

Operational role<\/b><\/p>\n

Unlike Justin Spelhaug, head of social impact technology at Microsoft, and Nico Carrino, head of social impact and public policy at Twitter, Manyika\u2019s role at Google will be both philanthropic and operational.<\/p>\n

But given that Google is currently embroiled in a number of lawsuits, dealing with growing employee discontent and criticism of Big Tech\u2019s role in online disinformation, shaping the firm\u2019s vision of how technology affects society will be no small task.<\/p>\n

Facing controversy<\/b><\/p>\n

Barely recruited, Manyika is already hard at work. He will co-lead, \u201cin a personal capacity\u201d, the AI2050 initiative with Eric Schmidt, Google\u2019s former CEO. This $125m philanthropic project run by Schmidt Futures aims to fund research into \u201chard problems in artificial intelligence. \u201d<\/p>\n

However, it has already caused a bit of controversy, notes the US channel CNBC, as one of the fund\u2019s first beneficiaries, computer scientist Rediet Abebe, a professor at Berkeley, refused to take part and asked that her name not be associated with the initiative.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. By appointing James Manyika as its senior vice president for technology and society, Google has decided to go for experience. After 30 years at McKinsey, the Zimbabwean is known for his research work in innovation. It\u2019s a small revolution: Google has appointed its first-ever vice president of technology and society. The lucky […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":10945,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,9,16],"tags":[233,246,314,245],"class_list":["post-10946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-miscellaneous","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-african","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"\nWho is James Manyika, Google\u2019s African \u2018techno-social\u2019 asset? - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/who-is-james-manyika-googles-african-techno-social-asset\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Who is James Manyika, Google\u2019s African \u2018techno-social\u2019 asset?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Africa-Press – Lesotho. By appointing James Manyika as its senior vice president for technology and society, Google has decided to go for experience. After 30 years at McKinsey, the Zimbabwean is known for his research work in innovation. It\u2019s a small revolution: Google has appointed its first-ever vice president of technology and society. 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