About the Hosts

Matthieu Ricard has lived and worked in the Himalayan region for the last thirty years. He is a Buddhist monk and resides at Shechen Monastery in Nepal.

Born in France in 1946, he grew up among the personalities and ideas of Paris' intellectual circles and worked for his PHD degree in biochemistry at the Institute Pasteur. After completing his doctoral thesis in 1972, Mr. Ricard left his scientific career to concentrate on Tibetan Buddhist studies. For over thirty years he has lived and studied in the Himalayas with the greatest living teachers of that tradition.

Mr. Ricard's photographs of the spiritual masters, the landscapes and the people of the Himalayas are internationally sought after. Henri Cartier-Bresson has said of his work, "Matthieu's spiritual life and his camera are one, from which springs these images, fleeting and eternal."

He is the author and photographer of "Journey to Enlightenment" and "Monk Dancers of Tibet" and "Buddhist Himalayas." The dialogue with his father, Jean-Francois Revel, "The Monk and the Philosopher," was a best seller in Europe, and "The Quantum and the Lotus" reflects his long-standing interest in science and Buddhism. His latest book "Happiness: A Guide to Developing Life's Most Important Skill" explores the meaning and fulfillment of happiness.

Matthieu is an active participant in the cutting edge scientific research on the effects of meditation on the brain. He received the French National Order of Merit for his humanitarian work in the East. Through Shechen Projects, Matthieu devotes his time to developing and overseeing an inspiring number of humanitarian and cultural projects in Tibet, India, and Nepal that include medical clinics, schools, and orphanages. For more information, visit Shechen.org

Chade-Meng Tan (Meng) is Google's Jolly Good Fellow (which nobody can deny). His unusual job title started as a joke, but eventually became real.

Meng was one of Google's earliest engineers. Among many other things, he helped build Google's first mobile search service, and headed the team that evaluated and kept a vigilant eye on Google's search quality. After a successful 8-year stint in Engineering, he now serves with Google University, where he is the Head of the School of Personal Growth. One of his main projects is Search Inside Yourself - a Mindfulness-based Emotional Intelligence course, which he hopes will eventually contribute to world peace in a meaningful way.

Outside of Google, Meng is the Founder and (Jolly Good) President of the Tan Teo Charitable Foundation, a small foundation dedicated to promoting Peace, Liberty and Enlightenment in the world. He is also a Founding Patron of Stanford University's Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education (CCARE).

Meng hopes to see every workplace in the world become a drinking fountain for happiness and enlightenment. When Meng grows up, he wants to save the world, and have lots of fun and laughter doing it. He feels if something is no laughing matter, it's probably not worth doing.