By now, you must have heard the news. Google is being restructured as ‘Alphabet’, a parent company that will encompass Google’s Internet-related brands as well as its other expansive ventures under one umbrella. The new Alphabet, modeled after Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway, will have Sergey Brin as its President, Larry Page as its CEO, and Eric Schmidt as executive chairman. Ruth Porat, once known as the most powerful woman on Wall Street, is still Google’s CFO, but she is also the CFO of Alphabet now, and will now report directly to Brin and Page, not Sundar Pichai, the new CEO of the new Google.
But who is Sundar Pichai and what is his story?
Born in Chennai, South India, Sundar Pichai is the son of R.S. Pichai, a retired engineer who once oversaw the factory floor for a company that made electrical relays. Displaying an aptitude for science and engineering at an early age, he competed in the National Talent Search Examination and received a scholarship awarded to only 750 students nationally, eventually garnering a spot at the coveted IIT Kharagpur where he completed his Bachelors of Technology (BTech) degree.
The family’s true sacrifice came when Pichai won a scholarship to Stanford in 1993. The Rs. 25,000 airfare, plus the cost of living in the US, was more than what his father made every year at that time.
“My dad and my mom did what a lot of parents did at time,” Pichai recounts in an extensive Bloomberg profile later. “They sacrificed a lot of their life and used a lot of their disposable income to make sure the children were educated.”
Having completed his MS from Stanford University, Pichai eventually went on to earn a MBA degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, before entering Silicon Valley.
His first job was in management consulting at McKinsey & Company, after which he moved to engineering and product management at Applied Materials.
Pichai joined Google in 2004 and delved into working on products like Toolbar, Google Gears and Google Pack, before starting work on Google Chrome, now the world’s most popular browser. However, it was the success of the Toolbar that helped Pichai pace through his career. He became one of the most important public faces of the company, appearing at various keynotes and product events of the company.
Late last year, Pichai was appointed as Product Chief at Google by then CEO Larry Page, and yesterday, 10 Aug., he was appointed CEO of the now-diversified Google.
In his blog post, Larry Page said Pichai will be a “key part” of the new structure that will “allow us to keep tremendous focus on the extraordinary opportunities we have inside Google.”He has really stepped up since October of last year, when he took on product and engineering responsibility for our internet businesses. Sergey and I have been super excited about his progress and dedication to the company. And it is clear to us and our board that it is time for Sundar to be CEO of Google.”
“I feel very fortunate to have someone as talented as he is to run the slightly slimmed down Google and this frees up time for me to continue to scale our aspirations. I have been spending quite a bit of time with Sundar, helping him and the company in any way I can, and I will of course continue to do that,” Page added.
Pichai is married to his longtime girlfriend Anjali Pichai and has a daughter and a son. The family lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
@satyanadella thanks for the wishes:)
— sundarpichai (@sundarpichai) August 11, 2015
@jeffweiner Thanks!
— sundarpichai (@sundarpichai) August 11, 2015
As news of Sundar Pichai’s promotion spread across the technology landscape, the congratulations and well wishes have poured in from all quarters. Known to be modest and self-effacing, Pichai has responded with a simple “Thank you” to some of the most powerful men in Silicon Valley, including Microsoft’s Satya Nadella (another India-born CEO at Silicon Valley), LinkedIn’s Jeff Weiner, and even arch-rival Apple’s Tim Cook.
@tim_cook thanks Tim, appreciate it!
— sundarpichai (@sundarpichai) August 11, 2015
