Google Cloud is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California.
Google Cloud
Google has split from its VP of Developer Relations for Google Cloud after a controversial meeting of all employees.
“I wanted to announce that today is Amr Awadallah’s last day at Google,” the vice president of engineering & product for Google Cloud Eyal Manor wrote in an email to employees on Thursday evening that was viewed by CNBC. “Effective immediately, the Cloud DevRel organization will report to Ben Jackson, who will then report to Pali Bhat.”
Manor continues to commend the team for helping Cloud’s “massive growth” and thanks them for reaching out on cultural issues. “I know it has been especially challenging with a series of organizational and leadership changes as we all navigate a global pandemic and don’t have the benefit of connecting personally as we used to.”
Amr Awadallah, vice president of developer relations for Google Cloud, who joined the company in 2019, wrote a 10,000 manifesto on LinkedIn in June about his past anti-Semitism, titled “We Are One,” largely based on personal anecdotes. CNBC began speaking to several staff members who on Wednesday described a controversial staff meeting that touched the manifesto. CNBC has also reviewed internal complaints documentation. The meeting recording was sent to more than 100 members of the team on Thursday, employees said.
“Thanks to those of you who have signed up,” Manor continues in the e-mail with the departure announcement. “It shows how much you care about this organization and building a supportive culture.”
Google and Awadallah did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Awadallah, well known in the cloud industry, also posted his manifesto on YouTube and Twitter to expose anti-Semitism by telling how he was enlightened after he “hated all Jews”. In a clumsy attempt to denounce hatred amid the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he listed all the Jews he knew who were good people. Staff said his public admission, which omitted important historical Jewish events, made it difficult for publicly available developer attorneys, tasked with being the face and bridge for Google developers, both internally and externally.
In the manifesto, Awadallah describes how he was “cautious” about VMware co-founder Mendel Rosenblum because of his last name, but came to appreciate her after getting to know him and his spouse and other VMware co-founders (and former Google Cloud CEOs) Diane Greene, who both invested in his Cloudera company.
The argument and the goodbye come a month after the manifesto, when Google wonders how it deals with the diversity among its executives and the double standards of employees with leadership. Employees said they were frequently reprimanded for being far less offensive about social media posts.
Employees who wanted to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation said frustration with Awadallah’s leadership style had built up for months, leading to an all-hand meeting this week where employees confronted him with their discomfort with his manifesto he worked and the leadership wear of his reporting executives. The meeting, according to the staff, required the placement of an employee from the HR department, who had to step in several times.
“On the one hand, I’m grateful that you no longer hate my children,” said a director of network infrastructure and tech site lead at Google in a LinkedIn comment. “On the other hand, this made my job as one of your co-workers much more difficult. The previous situation made it difficult to be a Jewish leader on Google. That makes it almost untenable.”
“I hated the Jewish people. The entire Jewish people,” begins Awadallah in his “confession” both in the text and in a YouTube video. Awadallah criticized Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in a tweet that has since been deleted for being denied a paid advertised post.
While Awadallah in his manifesto acknowledged his previous prejudices in the obvious pursuit of “peace”, he tries to explain, by means of anecdotes and personal stories, why his current claims are correct. One way to do this is to share his 23andMe results that showed it was him 0.1% Ashkenazi Jew, which he typed in bold as the reason why he is technically Jewish. Staff said Awadallah had previously used his 23andMe results to justify his opinion.
Google Cloud Developer Relations VP Amr Awadallah tweeted to Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey after the website found his post was considered hate speech.
“I admire many Jewish people, as I said before, but I will tell you this too with unwavering conviction: The Jewish people are no more special than the Christian, Black, Hispanic, White, Muslim, Asian, Arab or any other group of people People for that matter. “
When employees expressed their discomfort at the all-hand meeting on Wednesday, the manager doubled his manifesto and insisted that employees be misunderstood, they said.
A Google Cloud VP tweeted a “confession” about anti-Semitism.
