Steven Woods joined Google in 2008 as the engineering site director of Google Waterloo, where he is responsible for building and fostering a creative culture of innovation, engineering, and product delivery. 

Steven leads a team of engineering and product innovators in delivering projects relevant to Google’s worldwide mission. Specific locally-led initiatives include strategic initiatives in commerce-related applications and services such including mobile shopping; advertising products directly impacting more than $5B in annualized revenue; key person-to-person application areas including Gmail; and a strategic initiative in Chrome and ChromeOS focused on delivering a next-generation hardware and software platform for touch-based experiences. 

Prior to returning to Canada in 2008 with Google, Steven founded several companies in Silicon Valley including NeoEdge Networks - an in-game advertising company; Kinitos - a company dedicated to enabling creation of radically inexpensive and powerful consumer services; and Quack.com - an interactive voice portal service acquired by AOL/Time Warner in 2000. Steven has extensive experience in building and leading highly creative and successful teams - in consumer service invention and development, and in large-scale software engineering. Steven holds a range of patents and has received numerous engineering and academic awards - including the University of Waterloo’s J.W. Graham Medal in Computing and Innovation. He holds PhD and Masters degrees in Mathematics & Computer Science from the University of Waterloo, and a Bachelors of Science degree from the University of Saskatchewan.