Bet on Yourself with Former Amazon & Google Exec Ann Hiatt
Ann Hiatt’s first job was with a startup. At age 16. “Leaning into doing hard things,” she joined Amazon out of college and became Executive Business Partner to Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos. Her arrival at Amazon coincided with the dotcom bust. Amazon’s focus on securing customers rather than profit was considered risky at the time but proved to be visionary. A helicopter that Ann arranged for Bezos turned out to be a bit risky too. Listen to hear the story.
She left Amazon to pursue a PhD at UC Berkeley but the lure of tech remained. She was recruited to Google and worked alongside Marissa Mayer on new technology and became Executive Business Partner and Chief of Staff to Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Her 15 years in leadership of the two tech giants has given her a unique perspective on the enormous role and responsibility of transformative business models.
Ann now consults with executives and companies across the globe to reverse engineer their moonshot goals and get results. Ann is a sought-after international speaker, angel investor and sits on several boards in the UK. Ann has recently relocated from Silicon Valley to Europe and brings with her a unique perspective on what it takes to succeed in business today. Ann is also the author of Bet On Yourself: Recognize, Own, & Implement Breakthrough Opportunities is available now from Harper Collins.
In this episode of What I Wish I Knew with Mike Irwin & Simon Daw, Ann talks about what she learned about innovation and leadership from her days at Amazon and Google and how to apply innovation at scale.
Connect with Ann: LinkedIn // Ann Hiatt
Video Highlights: Advisor, Author, Leadership Strategist Ann Hiatt
“Why Jeff Bezos hired me…”
“Don’t be afraid to let people know your ambitions…”
“From ready to be perfect to ready to learn…”