UK Edition
Google hires British entrepreneur Wendy Tan White to help run its 'moonshot' division
Following from Facebook's hire of Sir Nick Clegg, Silicon Valley has again turned to the UK to bring in new talent at a senior level.
Google's parent company Alphabet has hired veteran British technology entrepreneur Wendy Tan White to help run its X “moonshot” division in California.
A source with knowledge of Mrs Tan White’s new position said that she will join Google as a vice president and will help to run the technology business’ ambitious division which works on futuristic technologies.
Projects developed at X include operating stratospheric balloons that can provide internet connections and a renewable energy project that hopes to store energy in tanks of molten salt.
The hire of a British entrepreneur to join Google as an executive is a rare move. Mrs Tan White will become the first British employee who wasn't already an employee of Google to help run Google’s moonshot division.
Google executives working as vice presidents in California are typically giving salaries around $400,000 (£309,000), according to data from Glassdoor.
Mrs Tan White’s move to X is a sign that Google wishes to recover from sexual harassment allegations which surfaced last year.
Staff at Google offices around the world staged a protest in November following a New York Times report which alleged that senior male employees accused of sexual harassment either remained inside the company or had left with generous severance packages.
Rich DeVaul, a director at X, was accused in the report of sexually harassing a female employee. Mr DeVaul publicly apologised for what he called an “error of judgement.” It was reported in November that Mr DeVaul had left Google without an exit package.
Astro Teller, the head of X and the division’s “captain of moonshots,” said on Tuesday that “I’m delighted to welcome Wendy Tan White to the X leadership team.
"Wendy brings more than 25 years global experience as an innovator, entrepreneur, investor, and mentor to the role. We’re delighted she’ll be bringing that expertise to the moonshot factory and helping to bring a new generation of moonshots into the world.”
Mrs Tan White founded British technology business Moonfruit with her future husband, Joe Tan White. The business launched in 1999 and allowed people to easily develop websites as the popularity of the internet grew.
The company raised £8m in funding and grew to employ 60 employees. Eventually, the married couple decided to sell Moonfruit to Yell for £23m in 2012.
Following the sale of Moonfruit, Mrs Tan White worked as a technology investor at investment firms Entrepreneur First and BGF. She was made an MBE in 2016.
Mrs Tan White and her husband currently live in West London with their son and daughter. The family is expected to relocate to California in the coming months.
In a 2017 interview with the Telegraph, Mrs Tan White said that running a business during the dotcom crash was a "brutal" experience.
"When the funding dried up, we couldn't support 60 people, so we had to scale back to four," she said, "it was pretty tough. That was an awful lot of people who we had brought into our mission, and whose job this is – and you have to let them go. Some of them were friends, so it was quite painful, emotionally."
Mrs Tan White also called on companies to hire more female role models. "We need more female leaders and mentors within organisations," she said, "which need to better support and guide women through their careers."