Sundar Pichai is an Indian-American business executive. He is currently the Chief Executive Officer of Google Inc.Formerly Product Chief at Google, Pichai's current role was announced on August 10, 2015, as part of the restructuring process which made Alphabet Inc. into Google's parent company. He assumed the position upon the completion of the process on October 2, 2015.
Here are 10 facts you may not know about Google's CEO Sunder Pichai:
- With this reorganization of Google/Alphabet Inc., Pichai will control search, ads, maps, the Google Play Store, YouTube, and Android.
- In February 2014, Pichai was rumored to be in active negotiations with Microsoft to become that tech giant's third CEO.
- His colleagues tell Bloomberg that Pichai tends to walk it out when he's deep in thought. It's not unusual for him to wander away in the middle of a meeting, only to return with the solution to whatever problem is being discussed.
- Born in Chennai in the state of Tamil Nadu, India, in 1972, Sundar's full name is Pichai Sundararajan. Though he had a modest upbringing, he's now worth a reported $150 million.
- His father, an electrical engineer, had to save for three years to buy the family a new scooter but made sure Pichai and his brother had the best education the family could afford, at Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan.
- Pichai's father told Bloomberg he believes that talking to young Sundar about the challenges in his work as an electrical engineer led to his son's interest in technology.
- Pichai was captain of his high school cricket team before earning his bachelor of engineering degree from the Indian Institute of Technology; his MS from Stanford; and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. When Sundar won a scholarship to Stanford, his father withdrew more than his annual salary from the family's savings to fly him to the United States.
- Prior to joining Google, he did management consulting with McKinsey & Company.
- Pichai has been with Google since 2004, when he joined to lead product management for Google Chrome and Chrome OS. He was involved with Google Drive and went on to oversee Gmail and Google Maps, as well.
- In 2011, Pichai drew attention when he was considered to lead product and replace Jason Goldman at Twitter. He chose to stay with Google.
EmoticonEmoticon