Google's Jolly Good Fellow Is Part Of The Team Nominated For The Nobel Peace Prize
Jan 12, 2015, 02:32 IST
Chade-Meng TanChade-Meng Tan with President Barack ObamaChade-Meng Tan was one of the earliest engineers at Google, joining the company as its 107th employee in 2000.
But during his "20% time," Google's famous initiative that allows engineers to devote 20% of their time on a pet project, Tan developed a course called "Search Inside Yourself," a mindfulness-based training method.
The course became so popular that thousands of Google employees took his class, generating long wait lists every time it opened for registration. He ended up "semi-retiring" from his engineering job and became Google's official "Jolly Good Fellow."
His job description at Google is to "Enlighten minds, open hearts, create world peace," according to his website. His book, titled "Search Inside Yourself," is a New York Times Bestseller. He also runs the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute, and travels around the world spreading his wisdom.
And now, Tan may even be a part of the team that wins the Nobel Peace Prize.
On Thursday, Tan wrote on his website that One Billion Acts of Peace, a global campaign he co-chairs, was nominated for the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize. Dawn Engle and Ivan Suvanjieff, cofounders of PeaceJam Foundation, the organization that created the One Billion Acts of Peace campaign, were also nominated. The campaign's goal is to inspire one billion acts of peace worldwide by 2019.
Tan wrote on his website, "At first, I was a little shell-shocked (in a good way). Then I was over the moon. After that, the weight of the responsibility sunk in. Wow. I work with a wonderful team of more than 100 committed individuals doing amazing, Nobel-Prize-worthy work, and I get to pretend to be their leader."
The winners will be selected in October. The Nobel Peace Prize Award Ceremony will then take place on Dec. 10 in Oslo, Norway.