The current issue of Portfolio magazine carries a profile of Paul Buchheit - one of the earliest Google employees who created Gmail, developed the first AdSense prototype and coined the phrase “Don’t be evil.”

Excerpts - “Buchheit first uttered those three words [don’t be evil] during a meeting convened to discuss how Google should communicate its corporate values…  Then “Don’t be evil” took on a life of its own, spreading rapidly through the Googleplex, and ultimately it was included in the company’s 2004 initial public offering prospectus. ”