Member Spotlight: Matthew Pritchard Shares How Google Has Grown Its Atlanta Presence Over 25 Years
12/17/25
For many of us, daily life as we know it runs through Google products. From Gmail to Nest thermostats and even self-driving rides, Google creates solutions that positively impact people all over the world.
Google is synonymous with the innovation players that gave rise to California’s Silicon Valley. But it may come as a surprise that Google has had a presence in Atlanta for nearly 25 years. What started with just a handful of Googlers in Atlanta in 2001 has grown exponentially to more than 1,500 Atlanta Googlers today. And Google’s Midtown Atlanta office is a microcosm of Google’s many lines of business. There are many different functions and groups represented locally, from Google Cloud to Google ad sales, software engineering, marketing, finance, supply chain, logistics, and many others. This new Google office encompasses 19 floors spanning 500,000 square feet.
Matthew Pritchard has been with Google for nearly 22 years, starting with the company in its Atlanta office in 2004 and served as the Google Atlanta Site Lead from 2015 to 2024. His role has been crucial to growing the local workforce of Googlers and finding meaningful ways to give back to the community. We recently connected with Matthew to learn about Google Atlanta’s culture and the boundless affinity the Google Atlanta team feels for their hometown. Read on.
You're an accomplished world traveler, having visited 106 countries on 6 continents. How did this become a part of your identity?
Growing up, I was fortunate that my parents really embraced travel because it exposed my siblings and me to different people, cultures and languages around the world. We saw how people in different communities live. I love geography. I could sit down and look at a map all day long. And so as I became an adult, I wanted to keep traveling. A few of the countries I have visited have been for work, but most of my travel is for pleasure. My brother and I have a friendly competition about which of us can visit the most countries. He's currently in the lead. But I just love it. And living in Atlanta with access to the world's busiest airport certainly makes it easier to do.
You've worked at Google for more than 20 years. What are the keys to the culture you're creating with the Atlanta leadership team?
The people are what make Google. Yes, we have amazing technology. And I'm proud to work for a company that's building products that positively impact billions of people all over the world. That is awesome to be a part of that. But the people are truly the number one reason why I love the company.
Next year (2026) will mark the 25th anniversary of Google's office in Atlanta. We started as a very small office, and for the longest time, we had fewer than 100 employees in Atlanta. We were advocating for Google to grow its presence in Atlanta, for many reasons. We have great talent in our city. We've got a diverse city, both in terms of our workforce and our industries. We've got great colleges and universities here. We have the third-largest concentration of Fortune 500 companies and a lower cost of doing business compared to many other major cities in the US. It’s a great place to do business.
Google’s executive team made the commitment to grow in Atlanta, and then we had to look around at where we were going to land. We really liked being in Midtown. We officed for 16 years at the corner of 10th and West Peachtree Streets before moving into Selig’s 1105 West Peachtree office tower in 2022. So we are very much immersed in the city. We are an office full of people from Atlanta who love Atlanta.
What are some facts about Google in Atlanta that people might not know about?
We've always made it a priority to give back to the community. For example, GoogleServe is an annual event held every June in our offices worldwide. In Atlanta, we help package meals for the Atlanta Community Food Bank, we clean up the Atlanta Beltline and the Chattahoochee River. We go to classrooms to help inspire students about science, technology, engineering, and math. Our community involvement extends throughout the entire year. We are partnering with the Technical College System of Georgia to offer Google Career Certificates to 22 colleges across the state at no cost. We also partnered with Mayor Dickens to launch the Atlanta BeltLine Marketplace. We recently partnered with Georgia State University to establish a new AI Innovation Lab. We are all Atlantans, and we want to see this city thrive.
Talk about your office space. A lot of thought went into showcasing the very best of Atlanta.
When we were planning the office and how people experience it, we knew we wanted to celebrate what makes Atlanta special. We found inspiration everywhere, from Atlanta’s role as the cradle of the Civil Rights Movement to its status as the LGBTQ epicenter of the southeast. Inside our space, you see us pay homage to the great local music scene. You see us incorporate the world's busiest airport and our hometown airline. We show the beauty of the city in a forest. You see us paying homage to every school in the city - our HBCUs, Georgia Tech, Georgia State & Emory. Read more about Google’s Atlanta office at this link.
You’re involved with Midtown Alliance as a Board member, and you have served in that role since 2023. What is your assessment of the work we’re doing together to create an exceptional urban place?
I was incredibly impressed at my first Midtown Alliance Board meeting when I heard about everything Midtown Alliance does, from improving streets for pedestrians and bicyclists to promoting arts and cultural events that the staff puts on throughout the year. It’s an incredible organization, truly, and I appreciate that even more since I joined the Board. I’m proud to be a part of it and I’m proud that Google calls Midtown Atlanta its home.