As Google’s Executive Vice President of Cloud Supply Chain and Operations, Monique Picou is accountable for a transformational organization that successfully meets customer requirements within the technical infrastructure of Google Cloud.
Picou was previously Chief Strategy and Supply Chain Officer for a Fortune 50 CPG company where—through joint business planning with suppliers, productivity, automation, digitization, last-mile delivery choices, and AI—she ensured that cold chain, dotcom, and ambient networks delivered record double-digit growth for the company prior to and into the COVID-19 pandemic. Prior to this role, she was responsible for a 5 billion USD budget at a Fortune 25 retail company as Senior Vice President of Supply Chain Flow. She also held various senior leadership roles in her 25 years with Procter & Gamble.
Picou has served on numerous boards, including the American Red Cross and the US Chamber of Commerce. She holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Southern University and an MBA from Florida Tech.
There are so many ways someone can make their way into the digital infrastructure industry. Tell us a bit about your journey, what led you down this path, and how you got to where you are now.
I am an electrical engineer by degree, but I started my career as a manufacturing engineer leading process reliability at a Fortune 50 company. I worked in manufacturing for the first ten years of my career, where I was focused on processing and packaging technology and operations. I then moved into technical planning and route management for our direct-store delivery organization. My career progressed into high-speed liquid filling technology, complex multi-layer pod technology, and eventually sophisticated personal care blade products. After more than 25 years in the consumer business, I’m now here finally with Google Cloud. While initially you might think my background is very different from digital infrastructure, those experiences actually have great applications to my role today. My foundation was still in hardware and automated equipment with a software communicator that was integrated to deliver something the consumer valued enough to purchase. I never would have applied to Google on my own, but an amazing female Googler gave me a reference that ended with an opportunity. Once I joined the organization, it was my broad technical and customer-focused foundation, coupled with desire and discipline for learning, that provided a path to progress.
