Meet the ex-Google CMO who quit with a seven-figure package by 28—he says getting promoted was easy because he just ‘disregarded all the rules’

Alon Chen joined Google in 2006 at 23, with no marketing experience and no connections at the company. By 28 years old, he was a CMO—overseeing marketing for Israel and Greece, building a $2 billion product line across 30 markets, pulling in a highly six-figure salary and a seven-figure equity package. 

By most people’s standards, he had made it absurdly early—and he says getting there was “easy,” too. Not because of mentors, politics, or any formal promotion track. In an exclusive interview with Fortune, Chen says he just ignored every rule he was given.

“Climbing up was fairly natural and easy,” he tells Fortune, “simply because I just disregarded all the status quo and the rules and realized what’s the right thing to do, and went all the way with it.”

Chen’s not all talk either: When a senior team at HQ blocked his plans to launch Google Partners internationally, Chen launched it anyway—in foreign languages, in foreign markets, without telling anyone in North America. “Once we proved it was extremely successful, then they came and asked us, ‘Oh, can you also launch it in North America?'”

Likewise, getting a promotion was simply a matter of demanding it ahead of schedule. 

Google told him promotions take 2 years—he got his in less than 1

At Google, the general rule of thumb was to wait at least two years before applying for a step up—he says most employees accepted that timeline without question. Chen ignored it entirely, went to his manager within a year, and made the case impossible to refuse.

“I just told my........

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