Recommendations
Senior Executives
I worked with Steve as he drove efforts to deliver impact across a broad, complex portfolio. He was always seeking ways to deepen engagement and understand the needs of the organization. Also, his candor, willingness to advise, and advocacy for others - in a diplomatic way - made him a great partner.
VP, Strategy and Operations for Google Research
Steve worked with me and other Google Research leaders on varied partnerships with other companies, nonprofits, and governments. He and his team found creative solutions to complex negotiations, enabling us to start new research projects quickly and economically, even as objectives and timelines changed.
VP, Google DeepMind
I worked closely with Steve on both strategic AI partnerships and various company-wide strategic AI efforts. He was: 1) a diligent student, quickly ramping up on AI topics such as data partnerships; 2) detail-minded, thoroughly bringing up potential issues in each of those cases and closing the loop to solve problems; and 3) one of the most positive and collaborative people that I have worked with, who actively brought people together to solve big issues. In my time directly working with Steve, he was an accelerator for multiple strategic efforts.
Director, AI and Future Technologies, Google
I highly recommend Steve as a skilled cross-functional leader. I worked closely with him and saw first hand his ability to grow and run a strong team, prioritize effectively amidst many competing demands and all the while be a great working partner. I always appreciated his straight-forward, common sense approach and his integrity.
VP AI, Cisco
Steve led Google Research's Partnerships team when I led the Product function. We worked together closely over a multi-year period in a high growth, complex environment. Steve was a great partner, an effective manager and easy to recommend for business leadership positions.
VP Product, Google DeepMind
I've had the great pleasure of partnering closely with Steve for several years across the Google Research organization. Over that time, I've witnessed how Steve established and evolved Google’s partnerships support model for Research, growing a team and building an impact-centered approach to scaling our research work. His leadership, deep understanding of R+D work and creative approach has inspired and shaped how other cross-functional leaders design their support models. Steve is an exceptional partner, tireless advocate and was widely respected across the Google Research leadership team and beyond.
Chief of Staff, Google Research
Legal and Finance Leadership
Steve has been a great partner to me and the finance team at Google. He understands complex business challenges, isn't afraid to ask hard questions, and leads with a principled problem-solving approach. I admire how he's able to navigate organizational complexity and stay focused on the most impactful work.
Finance Director, Google
I worked closely with Steve for a number of years as he led the Research Partnerships team and I managed the Research Legal team. He has great instincts for issue spotting, on numerous occasions bringing issues to me and the legal department early that we might not have otherwise seen, always with practical solutions. Finally, he’s great at managing cross functionally, driving solutions to thorny problems, always in a principled, practical manner. This quality is what enables him to bring value beyond the scope of his role to those he worked with and the company.
Legal Director, Google AI
Steve and I worked closely for over 12 years at Google. I've always been impressed with Steve's ability to organize his team and their processes to efficiently and rigorously manage this difficult decision-making function so that Google can focus its lean resources on the most important deal opportunities. Steve designed effective rules of engagement and crisp prioritization criteria to help our Product and Engineering leadership maximize both our Partnerships and Legal resources.
Steve also does a great job working with cross-functional teams to reach consensus on key deals. For example, one of our product teams was eager to move quickly with offering a deal to a partner that was likely to create legal/regulatory problems and potentially harm the longer-term business interests of a different product area. Steve brought the different Product, Partnerships, and Legal teams together and led the meeting in a structured but very collaborative way. He deftly helped everyone identify and hone in on the critical issues to resolve, and then efficiently drove the group to a consensus solution. I was really impressed with how much preparation and diplomacy it took for Steve to land this decision in a single meeting. All too often, these cross-functional meetings can lose focus and result in no clear decisions--or can even end in conflict--but Steve skillfully led the discussion with poise and balance, guiding the agenda so everyone stayed on point, and leading stakeholders to conclude for themselves the right decision even though he had a strategic point of view as well. This helped everyone truly buy into the final outcome.
With his deep experience in leading teams, prioritizing resources, and collaborating across functions, Steve was a much-valued colleague.
Director, Google Legal
I worked closely with Steve to navigate the complexity of export controls when partnering with universities. Steve quickly understood the relevant legal issues - and the complexities presented by sometimes-competing business needs. He is an outstanding partner and problem solver who brings a creative, practical, and principled approach to everything that he does.
Sr. Export Compliance Counsel, Google
Product Leadership
Steve is a great business partner. I worked with him closely for many years at Google Research and often sought his help for research projects I was leading. He’s a strategic thinker, great at identifying the business solution to a research problem, and knows how to work with researchers and engineers. Understanding research and innovation and how to partner to solve for their unique needs is a distinct strength of Steve’s.
Director and Product Lead for Google Search Quality
Steve is a fantastic business development partner. Steve and his team supported my team's advanced research product efforts spanning many technically complex, highly ambiguous domains. He invests in deeply understanding the product and business goals and is a great problem solver in developing creative business development solutions.
Director Product Management, Google Research
Steve is a problem solver. I worked with him on a very complex partnership with a government agency where aligning competing internal interests and the interests of the government partner was challenging. He cut through the complexity, focused on what was most important and helped bring us all to the right result for the customer and for Google.
Global Director, Cloud AI & Industry Solutions at Google Cloud
Team Members
I reported to Steve during my last stint at Google in AI Partnerships. He spent a ton of time and energy thinking about how to ensure teams were well set up and equipped to deliver maximum impact to Google/Alphabet. One thing he did especially well was to influence PM & Research leadership to take a closer look at their priorities and draw a line under the partnership-dependent initiatives critical to achieving target impact/outcomes, with less-impactful work falling below the line. The effects of this trickled down to the business side, making it much easier for team leads to prioritize effectively, with cross-functional stakeholders supporting this effort vs. pushing back on it.
VP, Circle
Steve was my direct manager on the Research partnerships team at Google. He is a selfless leader who genuinely cares for his people and is always transparent and authentic in his approach. Steve has been a great advocate in my career offering me stretch opportunities to build and grow a diverse, global Research partnerships team. As a champion of diversity, Steve made a concerted effort to increase representation on his team. In addition to being a supportive manager, Steve's extensive knowledge in the research and university space made him a great sounding board for complex deal issues and enabled me to ramp up quickly in my role.
Strategic Partnerships, Google
I worked closely with Steve for over 5 years, first as a direct report and then later, as a member of his larger team. In that time, Steve built our team from scratch and expertly scaled our function to match the organizational complexity and ambiguity that came with the explosive growth of Google Research. His leadership, and role as a trusted collaborator/advisor to all the leaders whose teams we work closely with, enabled us to cut through the noise, focus on what's most important and drive outsized impact efficiently, for Research as well as for Google's partners and users.
Above all, Steve is authentic, supportive, and genuinely cares about the people on his team. Beyond providing guidance on and helping to navigate org challenges when it comes to complex partnerships, he was always a willing listener and sounding board for any life/work matters I came to him with. I also really appreciated him being a huge champion of diversity and inclusivity, and was always intentional about fostering a team culture that is positive and healthy.
Strategic Partnerships, Google AI
Steve has a proven track record of success, having built our Global team from scratch. He is also a champion of diversity, and he has made a concerted effort to increase representation on our team. He always supported me in my role as DEI lead.
I learned so much from Steve during my time with him. He was always available to listen and offer advice, and he was always willing to go the extra mile to help me succeed. He is great at giving honest and useful feedback, and he is a great motivator. He was always there for me when I was going through difficult periods, listening to me vent, offering me advice, and helping me to get back on track. I am grateful for his support.
Head of Research and Core Partnerships EMEA, Google
Steve led various strategic and first of a kind partnerships for Research and Innovative Tech for Google, which formed the basis of long term collaborations not just in US but across the globe. In my interactions with Steve as the team Director, I found him to be a great listener and a problem solver. He built a strong team and was a "people's" person while at the same time respectful of the processes that one has to follow. He would always have our back in internal and external discussions, providing great management support.
Head of Research Partnerships APAC, Google
Steve was my Director in Google Research Partnerships. I highly recommend Steve as a balanced leader in a business role -- focused on driving organizational value while prioritizing his team's personal needs and career development when necessary. During my two years reporting to him, Steve managed a tremendous level of organizational change, with his senior leaders changing multiple times and his scope and team growing rapidly (nearly 5x) in two years. Amidst this, he focused on building a positive team culture. I appreciated his mentorship in professional and personal matters.
Strategic Partnerships and Product Management, Google
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