Pichai on being chief executive officer of Google Recorded December 11, 2018
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Pichai Sundararajan (born June 10, 1972), better known asSundar Pichai,[a] is an Indian-born American business executive.[3][4] He is the chief executive officer (CEO) ofAlphabet Inc. and its subsidiaryGoogle.[5]
Pichai began his career as amaterials engineer. Following a short stint at the management consulting firmMcKinsey & Co., Pichai joined Google in 2004,[6] where he led the product management and innovation efforts for a suite of Google's client software products, includingGoogle Chrome andChromeOS, as well as being largely responsible forGoogle Drive. In addition, he went on to oversee the development of other applications such asGmail andGoogle Maps. In 2010, Pichai also announced the open-sourcing of the new video codecVP8 by Google and introduced the new video format,WebM. TheChromebook was released in 2012. In 2013, Pichai addedAndroid to the list of Google products that he oversaw.
Pichai was selected to become the next CEO of Google on August 10, 2015, after previously being appointed chief product officer by then CEOLarry Page. On October 24, 2015, he stepped into the new position at the completion of the formation of Alphabet Inc., the new holding company for the Google company family. He was appointed to the Alphabet Board of Directors in 2017.[7]
Pichai worked in engineering andproduct management atApplied Materials and inmanagement consulting atMcKinsey & Company.[22] Pichai joinedGoogle in 2004, where he led the product management and innovation efforts for a suite of Google's client software products, includingGoogle Chrome[23] andChromeOS, as well as being largely responsible forGoogle Drive. He went on to oversee the development of other applications such asGmail andGoogle Maps.[24][25] On November 19, 2009, Pichai gave a demonstration of ChromeOS; theChromebook was released for trial and testing in 2011, and released to the public in 2012.[26] On May 20, 2010, he announced the open-sourcing of the new video codecVP8 by Google and introduced the new video format,WebM.[27]
On March 13, 2013, Pichai addedAndroid to the list of Google products that he oversaw. Android was formerly managed byAndy Rubin,[28] who was a director ofJive Software from April 2011 to July 30, 2013.[29][30][31] Pichai was selected to become the next CEO of Google on August 10, 2015,[32] after previously being appointed Product Chief by CEO,Larry Page. On October 24, 2015, he stepped into the new position at the completion of the formation ofAlphabet Inc., the newholding company for the Google company family.[33][31][32]
Pichai had been suggested as a contender forMicrosoft's CEO in 2014, a position that was eventually given toSatya Nadella.[34][35] In August 2017, Pichai drew publicity for firing a Google employee who wrotea ten-page manifesto criticizing the company's pro-diversity policies.[36][37][38][39][40]
In December 2017, Pichai was a speaker at theWorld Internet Conference in China, where he stated that "a lot of work Google does is to help Chinese companies. There are many small and medium-sized businesses in China who take advantage of Google to get their products to many other countries outside of China."[41][42]
On December 11, 2018, Sundar Pichai was questioned by theUnited States House Judiciary Committee on a range of Google-related issues such as possible political bias on Google's platforms, the company's alleged plans for a "censored search app" in China, and its privacy practices.[43] In response, Pichai told the committee that Google employees cannot influence search results. He also stated that Google users can opt out of having their data collected and that "there are no current plans for a censored search engine" inChina.[44]
In December 2019, Pichai became the CEO ofAlphabet Inc.[45][46] His compensation from the company topped $200 million in 2022,[47] which many employees criticized in light of large scale layoffs that Google undertook in 2023.[48]
In April 2024, after 28 Google employees were fired for protesting againstProject Nimbus, Pichai stated that the office is not a place "to fight over disruptive issues or debate politics", and warned against using the company "as a personal platform".[49]
^Melinda C. Shepherd, Sundar Pichai at theEncyclopædia Britannica. "Sundar Pichai, in full Pichai Sundararajan, (born June 10, 1972, Madras [now Chennai], Tamil Nadu, India), Indian-born American executive who was CEO of both Google, Inc. (2015– ), and its holding company, Alphabet Inc. (2019– )."
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