Laszlo Bock

About Laszlo Bock

Laszlo is a Senior Advisor to several significant AI firms, the founder and Co-Director of the Berkeley Transformative CHRO Leadership Academy and a member of the Board of the Stanford Center for the Advanced Study of the Behavioral Sciences. He founded, scaled and sold two companies (most recently to NVIDIA). Before that, he spent a decade as a member of the Executive Management Team at Google where he served as Senior Vice President of People Operations. His best-selling book, Work Rules, has sold more than copies with 100% of his book income donated to charity. He is an active investor and advisor in startups, with 60% of his portfolio companies going on to become unicorns and 85% having become unicorns or been acquired. Finally, he is also a documentary film and Broadway musical producer, with four Tony Award-nominated or -winning productions. Laszlo was the founder and Chairman of Gretel.ai, the leader in synthetic data for AI (acquired by NVIDIA in 2025). He was also the founder, Chairman, and CEO of Humu, which used “nudges” to make people happier and more productive at work (acquired by Perceptyx in 2023). From 2006 to 2016, Laszlo was the Senior Vice President of People Operations of Google/Alphabet, and a member of the executive management team. He grew the company from to employees while ensuring the culture remained innovative and robust. Laszlo co-led the creation of the field of “People Analytics”, the application of academic-quality rigor and Google-paced innovation to people management. He also co-led the development of the Google Job Search API, the only element of Google’s search engine developed outside of Google’s engineering organization. During his tenure, Google was named the #1 Best Company to Work for in the United States seven times as well as recognized over 150 times around the world as an exceptional employer. He was named “HR Executive of the Year”, “HR Executive of the Decade”, and elected to the National Academy of Human Resources. More than 150 of his team members have since become CHROs. He is a sought-after speaker on workforce topics, AI, leadership and company-building. He has appeared on CNN, the Today Show, Good Morning America, NPR and the BBC; testified before Congress; and been quoted in and written for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and Businessweek. He has worked with multiple Presidential Transition Teams and has been called on by various Administrations to provide counsel on workforce-related topics.

Experience

1. Nyt Bestselling Author

   Hachette Book Group

   Jan 2015 — Present

   Required textbook at Stanford, Harvard, Berkeley, Wharton, USC, Berklee College of Music and other universities. 100% of book income donated to charity.\"A bold, inspiring, and actionable vision that will transform the future of work. It should be mandatory reading for everyone who leads, manages, or has a job.\"―Adam Grant\"A dazzling revelation: at once an all-access backstage pass to one of the smartest organizations on the planet, and also an immensely useful blueprint for creating a culture of creativity.\"―Dan Coyle, author of The Talent Code\"A remarkable book that reveals the secrets of becoming a talent powerhouse. He shows the many benefits of a high freedom culture with a mission that matters.\"―Dan Pink, author of Drive and To Sell Is Human

Education

• Yale School of Management

  Master of Business Administration - MBA

• Pomona College

  Bachelor of Arts - BA

Skills

• Human Resources (HR)
• Consulting
• Strategic Thinking
• Organizational Design
• Organizational Effectiveness
• Comic Books
• Leadership
• Strategic Planning
• Mergers
• Competitive Analysis
• Start-Ups
• Management Consulting
• Mergers & Acquisitions
• Business Development
• Entrepreneurship
• Organizational Development
• Acquisition Integration
• Human Resources
• Saas
• Strategic Partnerships
• Program Management
• .
• Strategy
• E-Commerce
• Talent Management
• Video Games
• Creativity
• Analytics
• Venture Capital
• Business Strategy
• Cross-Functional Team Leadership
• Performance Management
• Marketing Strategy
• Corporate Development
• Change Management
• Enterprise Software
• Go-to-Market Strategy
• Executive Management
• Mergers & Acquisitions (M&a)
• Transparency