TechYob

Google just did something else right.

Word on the street is that they hired Alan Noble to head up their R&D in Australia.

Ive worked with Alan and seen first hand his energy, intellect and ability to lead teams.  For those who don’t know the 30 second water cooler run-down is

• Australian born and bred.  Attended Brighton High School in Adelaide.
• Masters of Science at Stanford. Speaks Japanese. 
• Holds over 6 patents (co-authored one with yours truly).
• One of the original developers for Rational Rose acquired by a small company called IBM
• Founder of NetMind, the first web synchronization company, which was acquired by Pumatech (now Nokia) for north of $400m and become VP Engineering.
• Now Ex-CEO of NetPriva, one of Australia’s under the radar success stories (shareholders include IBM)
• Whiteboard ninja. 

My prediction is that outside of Mountain View California, Australia just became the best place to launch your Web business.

Disclosure: TechYob holds shares in NetPriva