Days after being named to Time Magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world, Wael Ghonim, the young Google executive who became a symbol for the Egyptian revolution, announced he is leaving the search giant to a start a non-governmental organization in Egypt.

“Decided to take a long term sabbatical from @Google & start a technology focused NGO to help fight poverty & foster education in #Egypt,” Ghonim, 30, wrote in a Twitter message over the weekend.

Ghonim had been Google’s top marketing executive in the Middle East, as well as an internet activist who had been critical of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak in the months leading up to the violence that erupted in late January. He had been among the activists who created the “My name is Khalid Said” Facebook page to honor an Egyptian man who had been killed last summer. That page attracted thousands of followers and become a rallying point for the protesters.

On January 28th, the so-called “Day of Rage,” Ghonim disappeared from the streets of Cairo, kidnapped, the world would learn ten days later, by pro-Mubarak security forces. Upon his release, he proceeded to Cairo’s Tahrir Square, the center of the revolution, and rallied the protestors with a megaphone.

A series of highly emotional TV-appearences followed, during which Ghonim pledged that he and his colleagues were ready to die for the revolution. In subsequent interviews Ghonim credited Facebook for being the “spark” that helped ignite the revolution, and Twitter for being a crucial was for the protesters to communicate to the outside world.

Last week, Ghonim was named to Time Magazine’s list of the 100 most influential people in the world. In his Time citation, written by Mohamed ElBaradei, the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Ghomin was credited with understanding that “social media, notably Facebook, were emerging as the most powerful communication tools to mobilize and develop ideas.”

“By emphasizing that the regime would listen only when citizens exercised their right of peaceful demonstration and civil disobedience, Wael helped initiate a call for a peaceful revolution,” ElBaradei wrote.

Although the young activist was criticized by some of his compatriots for receiving too much credit for the Egyptian uprising, he insisted throughout that he did not want to be “the face of the revolution,” as he tweeted on February 11th, the day Mubarak left office.

But by then, it was already too late.

In an appearance at Stanford University last Friday, Ghonim said that although Mubarak had been toppled, the most difficult work remained — building a new society.

“We had a dream,” Ghonim told a group of students. “Hosni Mubarak was a nightmare, and we got rid of the nightmare, but we still need to reach the dream.” He said the goal of his NGO would be to “add a difference to people’s lives using technology.”

Photo: Egyptian Wael Ghonim talks to the crowd in Tahrir Square, in Cairo, Egypt, Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2011. (AP Photo/Tara Todras-Whitehill)