Doctor and Former Technology CEO to Lead Google Philanthropy

Larry Brilliant’s life seems the product of a split personality. He has lived in a Himalayan monastery and traveled with the Grateful Dead, but also is a doctor, a former chief executive of a Seattle technology company, and a telecommunications patent holder.

After 61 years, though, he says his two halves finally have come together. Last month, Google, in Mountain View, Calif., appointed Dr. Brilliant executive director of its philanthropic arm, Google.org.

While parts of his eclectic background seem at odds with working for one of the fastest-growing companies in the United States, Dr. Brilliant says the culture of Google isn’t that different from being a Dead Head.

Dr. Brilliant first became interested in helping the less fortunate as part of the World Health Organization’s campaign to eradicate smallpox, which successfully got rid of the disease in the 1970s.

He says that for those involved in the effort, destroying smallpox felt like winning the World Series of humanitarian work.

“It was the most inspiring event of our lifetimes,” he says. “We’ve never been as noble, or worked as hard, or been as smart as we were during that moment. So when it was over, I wanted to do it again.”

To that end, in 1979, Dr. Brilliant formed the Seva Foundation with $5,000 to provide eye care to poor people in developing nations. Since then, the Berkeley, Calif., charity has raised more than $80-million thanks in part to fund-raising concerts with Jackson Browne, Steve Earle, and other musicians. “We started with very, very little and we had to raise every penny,” he says.

Dr. Brilliant serves on Seva’s board of directors and says he probably will take a leave of absence from the charity when he officially joins Google in April. In a move he describes as unrelated to his decision to join the company, Google recently awarded $2-million to the Seva Foundation.

In addition to establishing Seva, Dr. Brilliant last month announced he will create a new organization to monitor global health emergencies, such as avian flu. Dr. Brilliant says he hasn’t decided whether the group will be set up as a business or a charity, but he will not run the organization given his commitment to Google.

Despite his accomplishments, Dr. Brilliant doesn’t take himself too seriously. When asked why the company’s executives picked him, he replies, laughing: “They gave up on finding anybody good and settled on me.”

As head of Google.org, Dr. Brilliant will oversee roughly $1-billion the company has pledged over 20 years to fight global poverty and solve energy and environmental problems.

While Dr. Brilliant has a large pot of money to work with, he says he also plans to tap the volunteer spirit of Google’s 5,600 or so employees. He says 400 Googlers, as they are known, already volunteer to put online the free advertising the company provides to charities, and thousands more staff members want to contribute.

Dr. Brilliant declined to disclose how much he will earn at Google, saying, “I will earn the right to make a substantial difference in the world.”

In an interview, he discussed his new role, as well as his thoughts on Google’s work in China, where the company has generated criticism for blocking Web sites that focus on human rights and democracy.

What attracted you to Google.org?

There’s a plus and a minus working for a philanthropic umbrella organization that is part of a company as opposed to being part of a foundation where a wealthy person has conveniently died. My experience is people who have died are much easier to deal with than people who are still alive and have opinions and thoughts.

The more I found out about [Google’s leaders], I don’t think I’ve ever been around people like this, and I’ve been around people of every walk of life. These are extraordinarily good people. I don’t have to say that; I can say anything I want. But the values that they have are not values that you frequently encounter ever, anywhere, especially in the for-profit, corporate world. The combination of excellence and good motives is an intoxicating brew.

Your children have said the Google position makes sense out of your life. What do you think they mean?

I’ve spent most of my life shuttling back and forth between two different planets. One of them is the planet you live on, which is the planet of philanthropy, and the other is the planet of technology. They’re really very far apart. Working in India and living in little villages, and having dysentery and being sick, is very different than being the CEO of a public company in America. There’s worlds of difference. Sometimes I would have people come to me and say, ‘I Googled Larry Brilliant and I found two of you. Which one is you?’ Literally they think those two personas can’t co-inhabit the same person. So what my kids were saying is that by coming to Google, both of those halves come together.

What does the company’s motto, “Don’t be evil,” mean to you?

Well, I love the motto, but I’m sorry about it, for one thing because it’s couched in the negative. What I see as Google is an affirmative, not a negative. The affirmative is to do good. I’ve never been in a place where the idea of not doing evil and doing good was in the DNA. It sounds candy ass — and anyone who knows me knows I’m not candy ass — but it’s true. Eric [Schmidt, the company’s chief executive] came up to me at the party when I was being announced, and I said, ‘Any advice?’ He said, ‘Yeah. Always return phone calls. Always return e-mails. Do it on time. Bend over backwards to be polite to everybody.’ When does a CEO say that to a new hire?

What are your plans for Google.org?

My plan is to be humble and to go and talk to people who have been doing it at this scale for a long time and ask for advice.

Was the company’s $2-million grant to the Seva Foundation related to your decision to join Google.org?

That was not for my coming to Google. That was done because they respected Seva, which certainly made me feel good.

What do you think of the criticism of Google’s work in China?

I don’t really know enough about it. I think I’ve been in the Google offices for 12 or 13 minutes after having been hired, so I don’t know really enough about it. I know their intention is to do the right thing.

Will Google.org support projects in China?

Let me hear what people have to say before I make any decisions. I feel really confident in the field of global public health, but the challenge for me is to master these other areas: energy, and poverty, and the environment. Before I say anything, I need to continue drinking from the firehose.