Shona Brown

Shona L. Brown
Occupation(s)	Business leader, advisor
Years active	1995–present
Known for	Senior Vice President at Google (2003–2012)

Shona L. Brown (born ) is a business leader and advisor to both non-profit organizations and corporate entities. Between 2003 and 2012, she held an executive role at Google, where she was the senior vice president overseeing business operations.

Life

Brown earned her bachelor's degree in computer systems engineering from Carleton University. She further pursued a master's degree in economics and philosophy at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. Subsequently, she completed her Ph.D. in industrial engineering and engineering management at Stanford University, where she also engaged in postdoctoral research focusing on business theory.

From 1995 until 2003, Brown worked at McKinsey & Company, ascending to partner status within the Los Angeles office by 2000. In 1998, together with her Stanford mentor Kathleen M. Eisenhardt, she co-wrote Competing on the Edge: Strategy as Structured Chaos.

Brown joined Google in September 2003, where she established the teams responsible for people operations and business operations. She was elevated to senior vice president in January 2006, and was recognized by CNN as one of four emerging influential women in business. A journalist referred to her as Google's "chief chaos officer," highlighting her practical implementation of business theories on a large scale. In October 2007, she became involved in an unlawful non-solicitation agreement with Apple Inc.

In 2010, Fortune placed Brown as the sixth highest-paid female executive with total earnings exceeding $16 million. By April 2011, while maintaining her senior vice president role, responsibilities for business operations and human resources were transferred to CFO Patrick Pichette. Between April 2011 and December 2012, she acted as senior vice president for Google.org, the philanthropic division of Google. Early in 2013, Brown resigned from her executive position to focus on advising Google along with other enterprises.

She joined the board of directors at Atlassian in November 2015.

Presently, Brown provides consulting services and holds board memberships for several technology startups such as Xperiel, Betterworks, ClearStoryData, Candor Inc., and Paperless Post.

Additionally, she contributes leadership to multiple non-profit organizations including the San Francisco Jazz Organization, Bridgespan Group, The Nature Conservancy, Stanford's Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences, the Exploratorium, and Code for America. Previously, she has served on the board of PepsiCo.