Patrick Pichette | |
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 Pichette in 2022 | |
| Born | 1962 (age 62–63) |
| Education | |
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| Board member of |
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| Awards | National Order of Québec |
| Website | www |
Patrick PichetteCQ (born 1962) is a Canadian business executive and venture capitalist who was the senior vice president and thechief financial officer ofGoogle from 2008 until 2015.[1] He then became aventure capital fund manager, and is a director for several companies and a foundation.[2]
Pichette was born in 1962 and raised inMontreal, Quebec.[3][4] He holds aBachelor of Business Administration degree fromUniversité du Québec à Montréal (1987) and aMaster of Arts degree inphilosophy, politics and economics fromPembroke College of theUniversity of Oxford.[1] He received aRhodes Scholarship.[5]
Pichette began his career in 1989 as an associate atMcKinsey & Company in Toronto. In 1994, he left to become vice president andchief financial officer (CFO) of Toronto-based Call-Net Enterprises, but rejoined McKinsey in 1996 after Call-Net's acquisition byRogers Communications. He joinedBCE Inc. in 2001 as an executive vice president. From 2002 to 2003, he had a brief stint asBell Canada's CFO, before transitioning to the role of president of operations which he held from 2004 to 2008.[5]
He was senior vice president and CFO ofGoogle Inc. from 2008 until 2015.[1]
In April 2011, it was announced that Pichette would also be taking overhuman resources responsibilities within Google from vice presidentLaszlo Bock,[6] andBizOps fromShona Brown.[7]
In 2013, Pichette accepted a position on the board of directors forBombardier Inc., a position he held until 2017.[8][9]
In March 2015, he announced he would retire to travel the world.[10][11]He was succeeded as CFO byRuth Porat.
In June 2015, he received theNational Order of Québec.[12]
In April 2018, he joined Inovia Capital, aventure capital firm with offices inMontreal, Toronto, San Francisco and London.[3][13][14] After becoming a general partner at Inovia Capital, Pichette is splitting his time between the firm's offices inLondon,[2] Canada and Silicon Valley.
In 2019, Pichette became a lead founding member of UK's Creative Destruction Lab at Oxford.[15]
In 2021, Pichette was appointed as a board member of indoor cycling app companyZwift.[16]
Pichette was appointed independent board chair ofTwitter, Inc. on June 2, 2020.[17] He served as lead independent director from 2018–2022. AfterElon Musk's acquisition of Twitter in October 2022, Musk fired the entire board of directors, including Pichette, leaving Musk as the sole board member.[18]
Pichette serves on the Board of Directors as chair of the board at Montreal-based companyLightspeed. He joined in October 2018 and took the position of Lead Independent Chair in February 2022.[19] He served chair of the board of directors at theTrudeau Foundation from November 2018 until March 2021.[20] Pichette is a board advisor to the start-up Arctoris.[21]
Pichette lives in London, and is married to Tamar Pichette,[3] with whom he has three children.[22]
He and his wife Tamar are involved in philanthropic projects including a conservation and research project withNature Conservancy of Canada in protecting Kenauk, a 65,000 acre territory between Montreal and Ottawa.[23][24][25] They are active partners in a project withHimalayan Cataract Project, building an eye hospital in Ethiopia.
