THE TRANSFORMATION ARCHITECT
How Faranak Farahmand Pour Rose from Legal Counsel to Director of Global Strategic Initiatives at Google, Redefining What It Means to Build Partnerships in the Age of AI
By Times of Fortune Editorial Staff
In an era where artificial intelligence is reshaping every industry and digital transformation has become an existential imperative for enterprises worldwide, one woman stands at the nexus of technology, strategy, and global collaboration. Faranak Farahmand Pour, Director of Global Strategic Initiatives at Google, is orchestrating some of the most ambitious partnerships in the history of enterprise technology—and in doing so, she's rewriting the playbook for what leadership looks like in the 21st century.
A Journey Woven Across Continents
The corner office on the forty-seventh floor offers a panoramic view of a city that never stops moving. But for Faranak Farahmand Pour, the view that matters most isn't the skyline—it's the one she's helping to build for Google's most strategic customers around the world.
"My professional journey has been anything but linear," she reflects, her words carrying the measured confidence of someone who has negotiated billion-dollar deals across multiple continents. "It's been a tapestry woven from threads of law, business, and technology, across different continents and cultures."
That tapestry began in the disciplined world of law, where Farahmand Pour was trained to think critically, structure complex arguments, and appreciate what she calls "the fine print that underpins any significant agreement." But even as she excelled in legal practice, she recognized that her passion wasn't merely in interpreting the rules of the game—it was in helping to shape the game itself.
This realization sparked a pivotal career transition that would take her from courtrooms to boardrooms, from contract negotiations to commercial strategy. "I was drawn to the dynamism of sales and business development," she explains, "where success is measured not just by mitigating risk but by creating value and driving growth."
"We are not just selling cloud services; we are helping our customers build their future."
The Global Classroom
Her early roles in sales transformation became what she describes as "a fantastic learning ground"—a crucible where she learned to listen to customers, understand their deepest challenges, and translate needs into tangible solutions. But it was her subsequent international postings across the EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions that truly transformed her approach to leadership.
"This international experience was transformative," Farahmand Pour recalls. "It taught me that business is not a monolith; it is a deeply human and cultural endeavor. What works in London may not work in Singapore, and a successful partnership requires a genuine understanding of the local context, customs, and communication styles."
These years of cross-cultural immersion instilled in her a leadership philosophy grounded in empathy—the ability to build bridges across cultural divides and to appreciate the rich diversity of perspectives that a global team brings. It's a philosophy that would prove essential in her current role, where she regularly engages with C-suite executives and government leaders from every corner of the globe.
"If I had to distill my years of working across continents into one single lesson," she says, "it would be this: context is everything, and empathy is the key to unlocking it."
The Special Forces of Deal-Making
Today, as Director of Global Strategic Initiatives at Google, Farahmand Pour leads what she affectionately calls "the special forces of deal-making"—a world-class team brought in when the stakes are highest and the scope is broadest. Her role is to identify, structure, and execute the most ambitious, complex, and transformational partnerships for Google Cloud.
"Being the Director of Global Strategic Initiatives at Google means being a catalyst for change on a massive scale," she explains. "We work with C-suite executives and government leaders who are not just looking to buy a product, but are seeking a true strategic partner to help them reinvent their businesses and even their entire industries."
The scope of her work is staggering. A typical GSI engagement might involve helping a global financial institution modernize its core systems, partnering with a government to deliver digital services to citizens, or co-innovating with a manufacturing giant to create the smart factories of tomorrow. The common thread, she emphasizes, is transformation.
"We are not just selling cloud services," Farahmand Pour states with conviction. "We are helping our customers build their future."
"Trust is the currency of strategic partnerships. It is earned in drops and lost in buckets."
Leading with Purpose, Empowering with Trust
For those who have worked alongside her, Farahmand Pour's leadership style is distinctive—a blend of strategic clarity, empowerment, and what she calls "leading from the front."
"Inspiring a team to take on such monumental challenges requires a multi-faceted approach," she explains. "First and foremost, it's about clarity of purpose. I constantly reinforce our mission: we are here to deliver game-changing impact for our customers. Every deal we work on, every negotiation we enter, must be measured against this yardstick."
But purpose alone isn't enough. Farahmand Pour has built a culture of empowerment and trust within her team. "The individuals on my team are some of the brightest and most driven people I have ever worked with," she notes. "My job is not to micromanage them, but to empower them. I encourage them to 'think 10x,' to challenge the status quo, and to bring their boldest ideas to the table."
This philosophy of empowerment is balanced by her willingness to work in the trenches alongside her team. Whether preparing for a ministerial meeting for a national-level project or brainstorming a compelling financial narrative for a major enterprise, she is there with them. "This not only allows me to offer my guidance and experience," she says, "but it also shows the team that we are all in this together."
The Integrated Toolkit
What sets Farahmand Pour apart in the competitive world of enterprise technology is her ability to draw upon a remarkably diverse professional background. Her legal training, sales experience, and international leadership together form what she describes as "an integrated toolkit" that she brings to every customer engagement.
"My legal background allows me to approach complex, multi-year, multi-billion dollar partnerships with a unique perspective," she explains. "I can help customers think through the long-term governance of a partnership, structure creative commercial models that align our interests, and ensure that we have a solid contractual foundation for co-innovation."
Her sales experience, meanwhile, instilled the most important lesson in business: it all starts with the customer. "We don't lead with technology," she emphasizes. "We lead with a deep understanding of the customer's desired business outcomes."
And her global experience? That's the secret ingredient that enables her to navigate the cultural complexities inherent in any transformation effort. "Digital transformation is not a purely technical exercise," she observes. "It's a change management challenge that impacts people, processes, and culture."
In essence, Farahmand Pour has positioned herself as what she calls "a transformation orchestrator"—someone who can speak the language of lawyers, technologists, and business leaders, connect the dots between big-picture strategic vision and on-the-ground execution, and build trusted relationships at all levels of a customer's organization.
Shaping the Future of Partnerships
Looking ahead, Farahmand Pour sees a profound evolution in the landscape of cloud partnerships—one that moves decisively away from transactional vendor-client relationships and into an era of deep, symbiotic, co-creative partnerships.
"Over the next decade, I see several key trends defining this new landscape," she predicts. Chief among them is the shift from service provider to co-innovation partner. "Customers are no longer just looking for a provider of infrastructure or software. They are looking for a partner who can bring world-class engineering talent, deep industry expertise, and a culture of innovation to the table."
She also foresees the rise of ecosystem-level partnerships—multi-party collaborations involving technology providers, industry players, startups, and governments coming together to solve systemic challenges. "Creating a truly sustainable supply chain," she offers as an example, "requires collaboration between manufacturers, logistics providers, retailers, and technology partners."
At the center of this evolution, she argues, will be data and AI. "Cloud infrastructure is becoming table stakes," she states. "The real differentiator over the next decade will be the ability to turn data into insight and action through artificial intelligence."
Google, she notes, is not just responding to these trends—it is actively shaping them. "Our strategy is built on an open cloud, world-class AI and data analytics, deep industry expertise, and a partnership-first mindset," she explains. "In short, the future of cloud partnerships is about co-innovation, ecosystems, data, and industry expertise. Google is not just participating in this future; we are building it."
"A diverse team is a hotbed of creative friction. It is in the lively debate between people with different points of view that the most innovative ideas are born."
A Champion for Diversity and Inclusion
Beyond her commercial achievements, Farahmand Pour has emerged as a passionate advocate for diversity and inclusion within the technology industry. Her sponsorship of Women at Google and involvement with the Female Founders Network reflect a deeply held belief that diversity is not just a moral imperative—it's a strategic advantage.
"My commitment to diversity and inclusion is not a separate activity that I do on the side," she clarifies. "It is an integral part of who I am as a leader and it is deeply intertwined with Google's mission and our pursuit of excellence."
Her argument is multifaceted. First, Google's mission is to build products for everyone—an impossible goal if the people building those products don't reflect the diversity of the world they serve. Second, diversity drives innovation. "A homogenous team is prone to groupthink," she observes. "A diverse team, on the other hand, is a hotbed of creative friction. It is in the lively debate between people with different points of view that the most innovative ideas are born."
Third, an inclusive culture attracts top talent. "The best and brightest people in the world want to work in an environment where they feel valued, respected, and where they can bring their whole selves to work," she notes. "Our commitment to D&I is a critical competitive advantage in the war for talent."
But ultimately, for Farahmand Pour, it comes down to values. "It's about creating a workplace and a world where everyone is treated with dignity and where everyone has the chance to reach their full potential."
Beyond the Headlines
In a role where outcomes are often measured by the scale of partnerships formed and revenue generated, Farahmand Pour offers a surprisingly nuanced definition of success.
"It's easy to get caught up in the headline numbers—the size of the deals, the revenue generated, the number of partnerships signed," she acknowledges. "And while these metrics are certainly important, they are not how I ultimately define success."
For her, professional success is measured by the durability and depth of transformational impact. "A large deal that doesn't actually move the needle for the customer's business is, in my view, a failure," she states. "A successful partnership is one that, five or ten years down the line, the customer can point to as a pivotal moment in their history."
Equally important is the growth of her team. "Am I creating an environment where my team members are challenged, supported, and growing into the next generation of leaders?" she asks. "Seeing a member of my team close their first major deal, or get promoted, or become a sought-after expert in their field—that is a profound measure of success for me as a leader."
On a personal level, success means living a life aligned with her values. "The work we do in Global Strategic Initiatives has the potential to touch millions of lives, to make industries more sustainable, and to make our societies more prosperous," she reflects. "Being a part of that, and knowing that I am giving it my all, is what gives me a deep sense of personal fulfillment."
The T-Shaped Leader
For young professionals aspiring to follow in her footsteps, Farahmand Pour offers characteristically strategic advice: cultivate a "T-shaped" profile.
"The vertical bar of the 'T' represents deep expertise in a specific domain," she explains. "In your early career, it is crucial to go deep and to become a true expert in something. Don't be a generalist from day one. Pick a lane and strive to be in the top 1% in that lane."
The horizontal bar, meanwhile, represents a broad understanding of related disciplines—the ability to connect dots between different fields and speak the language of different functions. "A career at the intersection of law, business, and technology is all about being a 'translator' and a 'connector,'" she observes. "Your deep expertise gives you the credibility to have a seat at the table, and your broad knowledge allows you to add value across a wide range of conversations."
A Legacy in the Making
When asked about the legacy she hopes to leave, Farahmand Pour's answer is characteristically ambitious yet grounded. Rather than pointing to a single deal or technological innovation, she wants to be remembered for developing and evangelizing "a new playbook for transformational partnerships."
"Historically, the world of enterprise technology sales has been very transactional," she reflects. "It's been about selling products, hitting quarterly quotas, and moving on to the next deal. But the challenges our customers face today—from digital disruption to climate change—are too big and too complex to be solved with a transactional mindset. They require a new kind of partnership: one that is built on a foundation of deep trust, shared risk, and a long-term commitment to co-innovation."
"Dream big, work hard, stay focused, and surround yourself with good people."
The Guiding Principle
Throughout our conversation, one principle keeps surfacing—a mantra that has become Farahmand Pour's North Star: "Dream big, work hard, stay focused, and surround yourself with good people."
"This principle inspires and guides my work by breaking down the immense challenge of our role into four actionable pillars," she explains. "'Dream big' is the very essence of a strategic initiative—we are not in the business of incremental improvements. 'Work hard' speaks to the grit and resilience required to bring massive, multi-year partnerships to life. 'Stay focused' is my anchor in long and complex deal cycles. And 'surround yourself with good people' is arguably the most critical component. Success in our field is a team sport."
As our interview concludes and Farahmand Pour prepares for her next meeting—a call with government officials on another continent about a national digital transformation initiative—it's clear that she embodies a new archetype of leadership for the 21st century: one that combines legal precision with commercial acumen, global perspective with local sensitivity, strategic vision with operational excellence, and personal ambition with a genuine commitment to lifting others.
In a world grappling with unprecedented technological change, leaders like Faranak Farahmand Pour are not just breaking barriers—they're building bridges to a future where the transformational power of technology is harnessed for the benefit of enterprises, economies, and societies worldwide.
That's not just leadership. That's legacy in the making.
QUICK FACTS
Name: Faranak Farahmand Pour
Title: Director of Global Strategic Initiatives, Google
Background: Law, Sales Transformation, Strategic Partnerships
Regions of Expertise: EMEA, Asia-Pacific
Notable Initiatives: Women at Google Sponsor, Female Founders Network
Leadership Philosophy: Empowerment, Trust, Leading from the Front
Guiding Principle: "Dream big, work hard, stay focused, and surround yourself with good people"
FIVE LEADERSHIP LESSONS FROM FARANAK FARAHMAND POUR
- Lead with Empathy: "Context is everything, and empathy is the key to unlocking it."
- Empower Your Team: "My job is not to micromanage them, but to empower them to think 10x."
- Build Trust Through Transparency: "Trust is the currency of strategic partnerships. It is earned in drops and lost in buckets."
- Cultivate a T-Shaped Profile: Deep expertise plus broad knowledge equals indispensable leadership.
- Measure Success by Impact: "A large deal that doesn't move the needle for the customer is, in my view, a failure."
Times of Fortune | Women in Leadership 2026
