Donald Harrison is managing partner of Gradient Ventures, the AI-focused investment unit of Alphabet, the holding company for Google.
Formed in 2017, Gradient Ventures is a prolific investor, with more than 130 companies in its portfolio. Recent investments include smart home climate technology developer Quilt, payment subscription platform Toku and patent discovery tool producer Patlytics. Databased decision-making software provider Writ and Jars AI, which offers generative AI-driven interactive shows are some of the startups that have received investment in 2024 alone.
Harrison has been with Google for nearly two decades. He joined the company in 2005 as vice president and deputy general counsel, where he made strategic investments at GV, another investment arm then known as Google Ventures. He also focused on global competition, mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance and securities.
“Gradient Ventures is a prolific investor, with more than 130 companies in its portfolio”
In addition to his role at Gradient Ventures, Harrison serves as Google’s president of global partnerships. He leads the company’s strategic partnerships worldwide and oversees product and ecosystem enablement and commercial partnerships across Google’s product and business groups.
He is president of corporate development and manages the teams involved in global mergers, acquisitions and investments. He led Google’s acquisitions of AI research lab Deepmind, internet digital marketing platform DoubleClick, mobile advert service Admob, home automation system provider Nest and consumer electronics manufacturer Motorola Mobility.
Besides his duties at Google, Harrison is a director at US space transportation company SpaceX and Reliance Jio, an Indian mobile telecommunications services provider.
Prior to Google, Harrison was a senior associate at law firm Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.
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