Google SA country manager Interview

Stafford Masie (34) is the Google brand personified.

Stafford Masie (34) is the Google brand personified. He ticks all the boxes when it comes to having passion and being positive. He’s smart, interesting, driven and an out-of-the box thinker. In Google jargon he is a walking, talking “googler”.

The Google recruitment process is arduous, but with his credentials, Masie could have worked anywhere. He went through 18 interviews with Google representatives around the world for the post of head of Google SA. If one person had submitted a negative report, he would have been out of the running.

Founder Larry Page personally signs up every new recruit to the company. That’s the way he ensures he employs not only the best minds, but people who are the best fit for the company, people who are “googly” enough.

Before joining Google, Masie spent several years working for Novell SA. He was then recruited to the US to run the Rocky Mountain region, where he was based in Utah and Phoenix. After that he was given responsibility for the Latin American region, followed by those of the Middle East and Southern Europe.

“In the past two years my portfolio changed to global mergers, acquisitions and partnerships, and I worked closely with the top executives of Novell,” says Masie. “I also got into the open-source software world and at the first Linux World conference met Page and Sergey Brin of Google, who were new then.”

But with the birth of his second child imminent, Masie decided to return to SA. The world was his oyster, so why did he make that choice?

“Why not come back? There is a renaissance in SA, despite the negatives. It’s the place where a lot of change is occurring and if we get it right, wow! I am extremely positive about this country. Many of the ‘googlers’ on my team are South Africans who worked for Google elsewhere and wanted to return. I spend more time as an ambassador for SA to South Africans than I ever did overseas.”

Masie joined Google because of the role he believes it can play in opening the dam walls of opportunity here. He believes that within the next two years the telecommunications arena will have dramatically changed because of new legislation and offshore cable connections. “We still haven’t had the true telecom energy injection into this country. It will come when connectivity becomes more pervasive and costs come down.”

Masie believes the degree of broadband saturation in a society is directly in proportion to that society’s maturity and competitiveness.

His passion for connectivity with the world is perhaps explained by his own experience.

“I grew up in Eldorado Park in Johannesburg, where we were exposed to gangsterism. How did the guy in the nice car get it? Well, by bad means. The people who worked honestly were bank clerks, school teachers or security guards. Thinking was very linear.” But Masie’s great-grandfather was a rabbi and his father, a political activist, decided to send his teenage son to Israel for reasons of safety and opportunity.

Masie studied computer science at Tel Aviv University. “My life really took off, and when I returned I found that my friends were still stuck in the old lifestyle. I had seen a different world, and that cross-pollination matures a person. That’s the beauty of connectivity: people interacting with each other all over the world. You don’t necessarily have to step onto a plane. All you need is a device as simple as a mobile phone to connect.

“We believe that by 2022 you’ll be able to store all content ever created by humanity on a single hand-held device. As we become less dependent on the expensive ways to connect, opportunity will open for Africa.

“It’s amazing how many people here have great ideas but don’t know where to go or what to do with them. That’s why I work for Google. It represents the idea that we can help the small guy connect into the global market and deliver internationally.”

Masie’s brief is to bring Google innovation to SA. He is growing his team and surrounds himself with positive people. “You can do so much with a team that is passionate and positive.”

It’s that kind of big thinking that Masie hopes Google SA will contribute to this country.

Google SA discussion

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