Pichai Sundararajan, better known as Sundar Pichai, is a technology executive who is Product Chief at Google Inc. Pichai was announced as the next CEO of Google on 10 August 2015.
Early life
Pichai was born in Madras, India in 1972.His father Raghunath Pichai was an electrical engineer for the British conglomerate GEC and managed a factory that made electrical components.
Educational background
Pichai grew up in Chennai. Pichai earned his degree from Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT KGP) in Metallurgical Engineering. Sundar's professors at IIT recommended he pursue a PhD at Stanford University, but he decided to pursue MS and MBA degrees instead. He holds an MS from Stanford University in Material Sciences and Engineering and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania,where he was named a Siebel Scholar and a Palmer Scholar.
Pichai worked in engineering and product management at Applied Materials and in management consulting at McKinsey & Company.
Google
Pichai joined Google in 2004, where he led the product management and innovation efforts for a suite of Google's client software products, including Google Chrome and Chrome OS, as well as being largely responsible for Google Drive. He went on to oversee the development of different apps like Gmail and Google Maps.On 19 November 2009, Pichai gave a demonstration of Chrome OS and the Chromebook was released for trial and testing in 2011 and released in public in 2012 . On 20 May 2010, he announced the open-sourcing of the new video codec VP8 by Google, and introduced the new video format WebM.
On 13 March 2013, Pichai added Android to the Google products he oversees. Android was formerly managed by Andy Rubin. He was rumored to be one of the contenders for the CEO position of Microsoft in 2014.
He was a Director of Jive Software from April 2011 to 30 July 2013.
Pichai was announced as the CEO of Google on 10 August 2015 after previously being appointed Product Chief by current CEO Larry Page on 24 October 2014. He will step into the new position upon the completion of the formation of Alphabet Inc., the new conglomerate for the Google company family.
News Related To Sundar Pichai
Is this the real reason for Sundar Pichai’s elevation to Google CEO?
There's an interesting theory making the rounds among some Silicon Valley insiders today.
Twitter is looking for a new CEO. Perhaps it made an offer to Sundar Pichai, who's been leading Google's core businesses since last October. To keep Pichai, Google decided to pull the trigger on an organizational change it's been considering for some time, giving Pichai the CEO title while keeping the same set of duties.
Pichai might not have been tempted -- Twitter is a flaming mess right now, while being the No. 2 man at a far more powerful company like Google was a pretty good situation to be in. But being CEO is even better!
We reached out to a person close to Twitter to see whether this might have made sense. This person couldn't confirm that the board had made an offer, but did tell us:
I've been hearing that too and I wouldn't be shocked if they want him as CEO. They tried to hire him once about 3 years ago and got very close. Google countered with a huge package to keep him there. I can't imagine him making the change after bring named CEO of Google today.
A lot of people have been discussing the theory on Twitter, too:
@rabois agreed. Good chance he was thinking of finally leaving to be CEO of Twitter. Keeping Android & YT with Sundar doesn’t fit the story.
— Anil Dharni (@adharni) August 10, 2015
Current rumor of the day: Sundar Pichai got offered a CEO job -- probably Twitter -- and Google had to counter somehow
— Mathew Ingram (@mathewi) August 10, 2015
@rsarver 10 bucks they made this move to keep Sundar from being Twitter CEO
— (Chad)Rodriguez (@chadrodriguez) August 10, 2015
Imagine the Twitter Board approaching Sundar this past week with an offer to be the next Twitter CEO and Sundar like "I'll pass thank you"
— Alex Barredo (@somospostpc) August 10, 2015
Pichai isn't the only talented executive who will get a new role under the new organization.
Nest, the smart home company Google bought in 2014, is now part of the larger Alphabet holding company, which means that Nest founder Tony Fadell could conceivably get a CEO title. Same with Calico, Google's company to research human longevity, which is led by former Genentech CEO Arthur Levinson.
Shah Rukh Khan Once Told Sundar Pichai he Wanted to be a Software Engineer
"I look stupid but I'm not, I'm really intelligent. I did electronics and got 98," SRK told the disbelieving Google crowd. He took the IIT entrance exam, even. "Those were the days of diodes and triodes, not chips and things."
Last October, Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan told the hooting crowd at the Googleplex that he wanted to be a software engineer, not an actor. "No, really. I look stupid but I'm not, I'm really intelligent. I did electronics and got 98," SRK told the disbelieving Google crowd. He took the IIT entrance exam, even. "Those were the days of diodes and triodes, not chips and things."
SRK, now pushing 50, convinced at least one person at Google - Sundar Pichai, the new Google CEO, who told the actor to let him know if he wanted to switch careers.
SRK, who participated in a 30-minute chat with Sundar Pichai at Googleplex, was promoting his film Happy New Year. On his way to the chat, he was ambushed by a Google flash mob dancing to the song Indiawale from Happy New Year. As Mr Pichai tells it, SRK promptly joined the dancers.
Who Is Sundar Pichai, the New Chief of Google
His name may not ring a bell, but chances are you know some of the products Google's new CEO, Sundar Pichai, has worked on, including the Chrome browser and Android mobile operating system.
Pichai, 43, was named chief executive officer of the Internet titan Monday, as Google unveiled a new corporate structure creating an umbrella company dubbed Alphabet.
Pichai will oversee the biggest company under that umbrella, which will still be called Google and will continue to include some of Google's best-known products, including its search engine, ads, maps, apps, YouTube and Android system.
Alphabet will be run by Google chief Larry Page, who showered praise upon Pichai, the current senior vice president of products.
"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," Page said in a blog post.
He said he was impressed with Pichai's "progress and dedication to the company" and promised to continue to groom him, who has been at Google since 2004.
"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."
In his current role, Pichai oversees product management, engineering and research for Google's products and platforms, according to Google's filing at the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Before that, he was SVP of Google Android, Chrome and Apps, working on consumer products "used by millions of people," the filing said.
Pichai was part of the team that launched the Chrome browser in 2008 and, prior to that, worked on various search products, including Google Toolbar, Desktop Search, Gadgets, and Google Gears and Gadgets, according to Business Insider magazine.
Before joining Google, Pichai worked as an engineer at manufacturer Applied Materials, followed by a stint in management consulting at McKinsey & Company, according to Business Insider.
US media described him as soft-spoken, little-known, and a long-time right-hand man to mentor Page.
Originally from Tamil Nadu province in southeast India, Pichai received a Bachelor of Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur.
He also has a Master of Science from Stanford University and a Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Page said Pichai is the man to steer the Google ship in the coming years, as it continues to innovate and expand its product base.
"Google itself is also making all sorts of new products, and I know Sundar will always be focused on innovation-continuing to stretch boundaries," he said.
"I know he deeply cares that we can continue to make big strides on our core mission to organize the world's information."
Fading American dream: Sundar Pichai is a metaphor for a new kind of elitism in US
Sundar Pichai — the 43 year old Indian American — is Google’s new CEO. Google or, in the words of John Micklethwaite and Adrian Wooldridge, Googlezilla, is a vast behemoth — a networked firm — a mutated successor to the likes of erstwhile General Motors — that almost has no boundaries, spans the globe and is a metaphor for the forces of globalisation, and technology and the convergence thereof. Much has been said about the rise of Pichai to the top position at Google and indeed it is a position that is enviable, prestigious and influential. Most of the commentary around Pichai’s rise revolves around the ‘American Dream’, the meritocracy implied in it and the openness of the country to immigrants — talented or not. Indeed much of this is true and gainsaying it would be silly.
I would, however, after conceding the merit of the ‘American Dream’ and its resilience adopt a contrarian position here. I would posit that the confluence of technology, globalisation and liberalism have, especially, in the United States led to the creation of a new class of people: the nouveau elite who are the children of the marriage between technology and liberalism. Call them ‘cosmocrats’, or ‘rootless’ denizens of the world, this elite owes no real allegiance to any state, nation of culture but their orientation is toward and for technology. (The aim here is not to denigrate or lampoon this class but put a finger on the nature of the phenomenon). This is not an original insight; it has been identified and elaborated upon by The Economist Newspaper. To paraphrase the Economist, this new class of people are ‘Great Disrupters’; they have changed the rules and underlying dynamics of many businesses — even ones that were held to be too conventional and traditional to be impacted and affected by technology.
Reflecting perhaps, Joseph Alois Schumpeter’s forces of ‘creative destruction’, this elite pushes the boundaries of convention, tradition and even the ‘imaginable’ and comes out with path breaking discoveries and tools. To cite a couple of prosaic examples, who would have imagined the Smart Phone a decade ago? Who would have thought that banking — a staid and rather conventional business with high barriers to entry — would be a disaggregated business with space for nimble, tech savvy competitors? Examples galore exist to illustrate the impact of the new class.
The question is: is the development of this class and what they represent salubrious?
Yes and No. Yes, because anyone with talent, oomph and gumption can touch the skies, so to speak. Pichai’s case is a case in point here — a veritable ode to the meritocracy and the ‘American Dream’. There, however, is a dark side. The trend, if it may be called a trend or development, smacks of elitism. While talent is talent, but for it to be groomed and reach efflorescence, education and grooming are the necessary concomitants. It is only the highly educated that can aspire to be part of this elite. It leaves out the ‘less fortunate’ to suffer and struggle it out in the domains of the banal and the ordinary.
Now consider the ‘American Dream’, this new elite and the rest. American society and polity is defined by the spirit of raw capitalism; this implies cut throat competition and even social Darwinism. Only the best and the brightest, in this schema, are entitled to the ‘good life’. The less gifted or the less unfortunate are left to suffer the gale of social Darwinism; in this schema, it is their fault to be what they are. I am not rooting for or even implying socialism here but merely positing the hierarchies that elitism and social Darwinism entails.
Globalisation coupled with the elitism inhering in it and the privileging of a class of peoples ‘who have it’, has led to the hollowing of the middle class in the United States. The working class has borne the brunt of the development and there is growing resentment against this in the country. The spasmodic backlashes against immigration in the United States accrues, more or less, from this development.
While it would be imprudent to call it a ‘class war, but it stands to reason that there is angst in the United States against privilege and the status it accords. The ‘average’ white young man from the South, may or may not understand the larger forces behind this development, but would perhaps naturally vent out his frustration at the brown, Indian ‘geek’ or techie for the loss of status and employment opportunities. The ‘American Dream’ has now morphed into an elitist privilege.
It is only the ones who have a great education, the right environment to use this education, mentoring and the confidence that all these accord. For many, the ‘American Dream’ is fading into the mists of the past. This can only be insalubrious. The country that prides itself on meritocracy and reward for grit, gumption and hard word is perhaps unconsciously drifting into a new elitism. While I have good will and admiration for Pichai and his stellar achievements, but he, shorn of exuberance, is a metaphor for this new elitism. The United States is a dynamic nation and has remarkable capacities for course correction. For the benefit of its peoples and perhaps even the world at large, the time for this may be now.
Hope to meet Narendra Modi soon: Sundar Pichai
Silicon Valley’s big names took to the microblogging site to congratulate Mr. Pichai on his elevation in the company he had joined in 2004.
India-born Sundar Pichai, who has been named the new CEO of Google, has said he hopes to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi soon as he thanked the Indian leader for his wishes on being named the chief of the re-organised technology giant.
“@narendramodi @google Thanks for the warm wishes and hope to have the opportunity to meet you soon,” Mr. Pichai, 43, replied to a tweet by Mr. Modi in which the premier had congratulated him on his new role.
“Congratulations @sundarpichai. My best wishes for the new role at @google,” Mr. Modi had tweeted following the announcement that Mr. Pichai will head a new and slimmer Google, which will come under a new parent company Alphabet.
It is noteworthy that Mr. Pichai’s appointment comes just over a month before Mr. Modi is scheduled to visit Silicon Valley in September and is expected to meet heads of various technology giants based there.
Silicon Valley’s big names took to the microblogging site to congratulate Mr. Pichai on his elevation in the company he had joined in 2004.
Mr. Pichai thanked Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Apple Chief Tim Cook and others who congratulated him on his promotion.
Google’s Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt wrote on Twitter: “Really excited about the vision and brilliance of Sundar... he’s going to be a great CEO.”
Mr. Pichai becomes only the third chief executive of the company after Mr. Schmidt and co-founder Larry Page.
Bret Taylor, co-creator of Google Maps, ex-CTO of Facebook and Co-Founder of technology Quip also congratulated Mr. Pichai, the first non-white CEO, on Twitter.
In a surprise and significant re-organisation, Mr. Page announced the formation of a new parent company Alphabet Inc which will replace Google as the publicly-raded entity and all shares of Google will automatically convert into the same number of shares of Alphabet, with all of the same rights.
Google will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alphabet, which will have Mr. Page as CEO and co-founder Sergey Brin as president.
Mr. Pichai, who was previously in-charge of product and engineering for Google’s Internet businesses, will be the CEO of the “slightly slimmed down” Google.
How ‘well-liked’ Sundar Pichai became Google’s new CEO
Sundar Pichai, the man who runs Android, is now the CEO of Google, a Google that has morphed and become the part of a larger entity called Alphabet. Larry Page, who will now be the CEO of the larger entity, made the announcement in a blogpost and said he was excited to see Pichai take on the role of Google CEO.
We take a look at his rise in Google.
Sundar Pichai was born in 1972 and grew up in Chennai. An IIT Kharagpur alumnus, he later attended Stanford for MS and Wharton for his MBA. Pichai’s father was an engineer with GEC. Before he joined Google, Pichai worked in engineering and product management at Applied Materials and in management consulting at McKinsey & Company.
Pichai joined Google in 2004 and was the driving force behind Google Chrome browser and the Chrome OS. Initially, Pichai started with handling the ‘Google’ search toolbar in the upper right corner of Web browsers, well before the launch of Google’s own browser. This was the time when Microsoft’s Internet Explorer was still dominant across the world. The success of the Google Toolbar, was what helped build his reputation at the company.
Here are five things you should know about Pichai as he takes on the role of Google CEO:
He is an Ivy Leaguer from India
Pichai, 43, originally from Tamil Nadu, a southeast state in India, had very modest beginnings, having been raised in a two-room apartment that required him and his brother to sleep on the living-room floor, according to a profile in the The Telegraph.
He first attended university in his home country, where he received a degree in technology from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur. Upon moving to the United States, he obtained a Master of Science from Stanford University and later an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s ivy-league-rated Wharton School of Business. At Wharton, he was honored as a Siebel Scholar and a Palmer Scholar, according to reports.
He knows how to navigate corporate politics
The former head of Chrome and Android is well-liked across the company and savvy at managing corporate politics, according to one of his former colleagues, Chris Beckmann, who served as a project manager at Google for several years.
“He avoided making enemies,” Beckmann said in a recent post on Quora. “Google has politics like any other large company, and Sundar navigated those politics to make his team successful while inflicting the least possible damage on any other team.”
He quickly rose through Google’s ranks after launching Chrome
His likability has been one reason for his rapid rise through the ranks at Google. He was initially hired as a product manager, eventually reporting to then-head of product, Marissa Mayer, now CEO of Yahoo Inc. YHOO, -3.01% . At the time he was a lead in the launch of Google’s Web browser, Chrome.
Despite a few hiccups in the Chrome launch, he was shortly thereafter promoted to vice president. He was ultimately promoted to senior vice president, taking on increasing oversight over Google products, including Chromebook, Chromecast and Gmail. In 2013, he was additionally handed the reins of Android when Andy Rubin stepped down. For the last year, he was largely viewed as a right-hand man for Page.
“We think Sundar Pichai is extremely capable,” Pacific Crest Securities analyst Evan Wilson said.
He turned down an offer from Twitter four years ago
He has been noticed by other companies as well, including Twitter Inc. TWTR, +0.41% . In 2011, Twitter tried to poach Pichai to oversee products at the microblogging site after then-VP of product Jason Goldman stepped down. According to an AllThingsD article at the time citing unnamed sources, Google gave Pichai a significant pay raise to keep him on board.
His name was recently floated as a potential candidate for the role of CEO at Twitter, and FBR analyst William Bird said his promotion to CEO may have been a tactic by Page and Brin to keep Pichai on staff.
“The new structure offers an important way to promote and retain Sundar Pichai,” Bird said.
In 2014, Pichai was also floated as a potential candidate to fill the CEO role at Microsoft Corp. MSFT, -1.94% after Steve Ballmer stepped down. His leadership skills have been touted by current and former colleagues, including Beckmann, who, in the Quora post, said Pichai was known for his savvy in recruiting, mentoring and retaining talent.
“Sundar’s team of product managers had a reputation as being among the best of the best,” Beckmann said.
He’s been preparing for his promotion for almost a year
In a note to shareholders on Monday, Page said Pichai has “really stepped up since October” 2014, when he took on product and engineering responsibility for Google’s Internet business. “Sergey and I have been super excited about his progress,” Page said.
Early life
Pichai was born in Madras, India in 1972.His father Raghunath Pichai was an electrical engineer for the British conglomerate GEC and managed a factory that made electrical components.
Educational background
Pichai grew up in Chennai. Pichai earned his degree from Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT KGP) in Metallurgical Engineering. Sundar's professors at IIT recommended he pursue a PhD at Stanford University, but he decided to pursue MS and MBA degrees instead. He holds an MS from Stanford University in Material Sciences and Engineering and an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania,where he was named a Siebel Scholar and a Palmer Scholar.
Pichai worked in engineering and product management at Applied Materials and in management consulting at McKinsey & Company.
On 13 March 2013, Pichai added Android to the Google products he oversees. Android was formerly managed by Andy Rubin. He was rumored to be one of the contenders for the CEO position of Microsoft in 2014.
He was a Director of Jive Software from April 2011 to 30 July 2013.
Pichai was announced as the CEO of Google on 10 August 2015 after previously being appointed Product Chief by current CEO Larry Page on 24 October 2014. He will step into the new position upon the completion of the formation of Alphabet Inc., the new conglomerate for the Google company family.
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News Related To Sundar Pichai
Is this the real reason for Sundar Pichai’s elevation to Google CEO?
There's an interesting theory making the rounds among some Silicon Valley insiders today.
Twitter is looking for a new CEO. Perhaps it made an offer to Sundar Pichai, who's been leading Google's core businesses since last October. To keep Pichai, Google decided to pull the trigger on an organizational change it's been considering for some time, giving Pichai the CEO title while keeping the same set of duties.
Pichai might not have been tempted -- Twitter is a flaming mess right now, while being the No. 2 man at a far more powerful company like Google was a pretty good situation to be in. But being CEO is even better!
We reached out to a person close to Twitter to see whether this might have made sense. This person couldn't confirm that the board had made an offer, but did tell us:
I've been hearing that too and I wouldn't be shocked if they want him as CEO. They tried to hire him once about 3 years ago and got very close. Google countered with a huge package to keep him there. I can't imagine him making the change after bring named CEO of Google today.
A lot of people have been discussing the theory on Twitter, too:
@rabois agreed. Good chance he was thinking of finally leaving to be CEO of Twitter. Keeping Android & YT with Sundar doesn’t fit the story.
— Anil Dharni (@adharni) August 10, 2015
Current rumor of the day: Sundar Pichai got offered a CEO job -- probably Twitter -- and Google had to counter somehow
— Mathew Ingram (@mathewi) August 10, 2015
@rsarver 10 bucks they made this move to keep Sundar from being Twitter CEO
— (Chad)Rodriguez (@chadrodriguez) August 10, 2015
Imagine the Twitter Board approaching Sundar this past week with an offer to be the next Twitter CEO and Sundar like "I'll pass thank you"
— Alex Barredo (@somospostpc) August 10, 2015
Pichai isn't the only talented executive who will get a new role under the new organization.
Nest, the smart home company Google bought in 2014, is now part of the larger Alphabet holding company, which means that Nest founder Tony Fadell could conceivably get a CEO title. Same with Calico, Google's company to research human longevity, which is led by former Genentech CEO Arthur Levinson.
Shah Rukh Khan Once Told Sundar Pichai he Wanted to be a Software Engineer
"I look stupid but I'm not, I'm really intelligent. I did electronics and got 98," SRK told the disbelieving Google crowd. He took the IIT entrance exam, even. "Those were the days of diodes and triodes, not chips and things."
Last October, Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan told the hooting crowd at the Googleplex that he wanted to be a software engineer, not an actor. "No, really. I look stupid but I'm not, I'm really intelligent. I did electronics and got 98," SRK told the disbelieving Google crowd. He took the IIT entrance exam, even. "Those were the days of diodes and triodes, not chips and things."
SRK, now pushing 50, convinced at least one person at Google - Sundar Pichai, the new Google CEO, who told the actor to let him know if he wanted to switch careers.
SRK, who participated in a 30-minute chat with Sundar Pichai at Googleplex, was promoting his film Happy New Year. On his way to the chat, he was ambushed by a Google flash mob dancing to the song Indiawale from Happy New Year. As Mr Pichai tells it, SRK promptly joined the dancers.
Who Is Sundar Pichai, the New Chief of Google
His name may not ring a bell, but chances are you know some of the products Google's new CEO, Sundar Pichai, has worked on, including the Chrome browser and Android mobile operating system.
Pichai, 43, was named chief executive officer of the Internet titan Monday, as Google unveiled a new corporate structure creating an umbrella company dubbed Alphabet.
Pichai will oversee the biggest company under that umbrella, which will still be called Google and will continue to include some of Google's best-known products, including its search engine, ads, maps, apps, YouTube and Android system.
Alphabet will be run by Google chief Larry Page, who showered praise upon Pichai, the current senior vice president of products.
"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," Page said in a blog post.
He said he was impressed with Pichai's "progress and dedication to the company" and promised to continue to groom him, who has been at Google since 2004.
"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."
In his current role, Pichai oversees product management, engineering and research for Google's products and platforms, according to Google's filing at the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Before that, he was SVP of Google Android, Chrome and Apps, working on consumer products "used by millions of people," the filing said.
Pichai was part of the team that launched the Chrome browser in 2008 and, prior to that, worked on various search products, including Google Toolbar, Desktop Search, Gadgets, and Google Gears and Gadgets, according to Business Insider magazine.
Before joining Google, Pichai worked as an engineer at manufacturer Applied Materials, followed by a stint in management consulting at McKinsey & Company, according to Business Insider.
US media described him as soft-spoken, little-known, and a long-time right-hand man to mentor Page.
Originally from Tamil Nadu province in southeast India, Pichai received a Bachelor of Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur.
He also has a Master of Science from Stanford University and a Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Page said Pichai is the man to steer the Google ship in the coming years, as it continues to innovate and expand its product base.
"Google itself is also making all sorts of new products, and I know Sundar will always be focused on innovation-continuing to stretch boundaries," he said.
"I know he deeply cares that we can continue to make big strides on our core mission to organize the world's information."
Fading American dream: Sundar Pichai is a metaphor for a new kind of elitism in US
Sundar Pichai — the 43 year old Indian American — is Google’s new CEO. Google or, in the words of John Micklethwaite and Adrian Wooldridge, Googlezilla, is a vast behemoth — a networked firm — a mutated successor to the likes of erstwhile General Motors — that almost has no boundaries, spans the globe and is a metaphor for the forces of globalisation, and technology and the convergence thereof. Much has been said about the rise of Pichai to the top position at Google and indeed it is a position that is enviable, prestigious and influential. Most of the commentary around Pichai’s rise revolves around the ‘American Dream’, the meritocracy implied in it and the openness of the country to immigrants — talented or not. Indeed much of this is true and gainsaying it would be silly.
I would, however, after conceding the merit of the ‘American Dream’ and its resilience adopt a contrarian position here. I would posit that the confluence of technology, globalisation and liberalism have, especially, in the United States led to the creation of a new class of people: the nouveau elite who are the children of the marriage between technology and liberalism. Call them ‘cosmocrats’, or ‘rootless’ denizens of the world, this elite owes no real allegiance to any state, nation of culture but their orientation is toward and for technology. (The aim here is not to denigrate or lampoon this class but put a finger on the nature of the phenomenon). This is not an original insight; it has been identified and elaborated upon by The Economist Newspaper. To paraphrase the Economist, this new class of people are ‘Great Disrupters’; they have changed the rules and underlying dynamics of many businesses — even ones that were held to be too conventional and traditional to be impacted and affected by technology.
Reflecting perhaps, Joseph Alois Schumpeter’s forces of ‘creative destruction’, this elite pushes the boundaries of convention, tradition and even the ‘imaginable’ and comes out with path breaking discoveries and tools. To cite a couple of prosaic examples, who would have imagined the Smart Phone a decade ago? Who would have thought that banking — a staid and rather conventional business with high barriers to entry — would be a disaggregated business with space for nimble, tech savvy competitors? Examples galore exist to illustrate the impact of the new class.
The question is: is the development of this class and what they represent salubrious?
Yes and No. Yes, because anyone with talent, oomph and gumption can touch the skies, so to speak. Pichai’s case is a case in point here — a veritable ode to the meritocracy and the ‘American Dream’. There, however, is a dark side. The trend, if it may be called a trend or development, smacks of elitism. While talent is talent, but for it to be groomed and reach efflorescence, education and grooming are the necessary concomitants. It is only the highly educated that can aspire to be part of this elite. It leaves out the ‘less fortunate’ to suffer and struggle it out in the domains of the banal and the ordinary.
Now consider the ‘American Dream’, this new elite and the rest. American society and polity is defined by the spirit of raw capitalism; this implies cut throat competition and even social Darwinism. Only the best and the brightest, in this schema, are entitled to the ‘good life’. The less gifted or the less unfortunate are left to suffer the gale of social Darwinism; in this schema, it is their fault to be what they are. I am not rooting for or even implying socialism here but merely positing the hierarchies that elitism and social Darwinism entails.
Globalisation coupled with the elitism inhering in it and the privileging of a class of peoples ‘who have it’, has led to the hollowing of the middle class in the United States. The working class has borne the brunt of the development and there is growing resentment against this in the country. The spasmodic backlashes against immigration in the United States accrues, more or less, from this development.
While it would be imprudent to call it a ‘class war, but it stands to reason that there is angst in the United States against privilege and the status it accords. The ‘average’ white young man from the South, may or may not understand the larger forces behind this development, but would perhaps naturally vent out his frustration at the brown, Indian ‘geek’ or techie for the loss of status and employment opportunities. The ‘American Dream’ has now morphed into an elitist privilege.
It is only the ones who have a great education, the right environment to use this education, mentoring and the confidence that all these accord. For many, the ‘American Dream’ is fading into the mists of the past. This can only be insalubrious. The country that prides itself on meritocracy and reward for grit, gumption and hard word is perhaps unconsciously drifting into a new elitism. While I have good will and admiration for Pichai and his stellar achievements, but he, shorn of exuberance, is a metaphor for this new elitism. The United States is a dynamic nation and has remarkable capacities for course correction. For the benefit of its peoples and perhaps even the world at large, the time for this may be now.
Hope to meet Narendra Modi soon: Sundar Pichai
Silicon Valley’s big names took to the microblogging site to congratulate Mr. Pichai on his elevation in the company he had joined in 2004.
India-born Sundar Pichai, who has been named the new CEO of Google, has said he hopes to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi soon as he thanked the Indian leader for his wishes on being named the chief of the re-organised technology giant.
“@narendramodi @google Thanks for the warm wishes and hope to have the opportunity to meet you soon,” Mr. Pichai, 43, replied to a tweet by Mr. Modi in which the premier had congratulated him on his new role.
“Congratulations @sundarpichai. My best wishes for the new role at @google,” Mr. Modi had tweeted following the announcement that Mr. Pichai will head a new and slimmer Google, which will come under a new parent company Alphabet.
It is noteworthy that Mr. Pichai’s appointment comes just over a month before Mr. Modi is scheduled to visit Silicon Valley in September and is expected to meet heads of various technology giants based there.
Silicon Valley’s big names took to the microblogging site to congratulate Mr. Pichai on his elevation in the company he had joined in 2004.
Mr. Pichai thanked Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Apple Chief Tim Cook and others who congratulated him on his promotion.
Google’s Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt wrote on Twitter: “Really excited about the vision and brilliance of Sundar... he’s going to be a great CEO.”
Mr. Pichai becomes only the third chief executive of the company after Mr. Schmidt and co-founder Larry Page.
Bret Taylor, co-creator of Google Maps, ex-CTO of Facebook and Co-Founder of technology Quip also congratulated Mr. Pichai, the first non-white CEO, on Twitter.
In a surprise and significant re-organisation, Mr. Page announced the formation of a new parent company Alphabet Inc which will replace Google as the publicly-raded entity and all shares of Google will automatically convert into the same number of shares of Alphabet, with all of the same rights.
Google will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Alphabet, which will have Mr. Page as CEO and co-founder Sergey Brin as president.
Mr. Pichai, who was previously in-charge of product and engineering for Google’s Internet businesses, will be the CEO of the “slightly slimmed down” Google.
How ‘well-liked’ Sundar Pichai became Google’s new CEO
Sundar Pichai, the man who runs Android, is now the CEO of Google, a Google that has morphed and become the part of a larger entity called Alphabet. Larry Page, who will now be the CEO of the larger entity, made the announcement in a blogpost and said he was excited to see Pichai take on the role of Google CEO.
We take a look at his rise in Google.
Sundar Pichai was born in 1972 and grew up in Chennai. An IIT Kharagpur alumnus, he later attended Stanford for MS and Wharton for his MBA. Pichai’s father was an engineer with GEC. Before he joined Google, Pichai worked in engineering and product management at Applied Materials and in management consulting at McKinsey & Company.
Pichai joined Google in 2004 and was the driving force behind Google Chrome browser and the Chrome OS. Initially, Pichai started with handling the ‘Google’ search toolbar in the upper right corner of Web browsers, well before the launch of Google’s own browser. This was the time when Microsoft’s Internet Explorer was still dominant across the world. The success of the Google Toolbar, was what helped build his reputation at the company.
Here are five things you should know about Pichai as he takes on the role of Google CEO:
He is an Ivy Leaguer from India
Pichai, 43, originally from Tamil Nadu, a southeast state in India, had very modest beginnings, having been raised in a two-room apartment that required him and his brother to sleep on the living-room floor, according to a profile in the The Telegraph.
He first attended university in his home country, where he received a degree in technology from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur. Upon moving to the United States, he obtained a Master of Science from Stanford University and later an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s ivy-league-rated Wharton School of Business. At Wharton, he was honored as a Siebel Scholar and a Palmer Scholar, according to reports.
He knows how to navigate corporate politics
The former head of Chrome and Android is well-liked across the company and savvy at managing corporate politics, according to one of his former colleagues, Chris Beckmann, who served as a project manager at Google for several years.
“He avoided making enemies,” Beckmann said in a recent post on Quora. “Google has politics like any other large company, and Sundar navigated those politics to make his team successful while inflicting the least possible damage on any other team.”
He quickly rose through Google’s ranks after launching Chrome
His likability has been one reason for his rapid rise through the ranks at Google. He was initially hired as a product manager, eventually reporting to then-head of product, Marissa Mayer, now CEO of Yahoo Inc. YHOO, -3.01% . At the time he was a lead in the launch of Google’s Web browser, Chrome.
Despite a few hiccups in the Chrome launch, he was shortly thereafter promoted to vice president. He was ultimately promoted to senior vice president, taking on increasing oversight over Google products, including Chromebook, Chromecast and Gmail. In 2013, he was additionally handed the reins of Android when Andy Rubin stepped down. For the last year, he was largely viewed as a right-hand man for Page.
“We think Sundar Pichai is extremely capable,” Pacific Crest Securities analyst Evan Wilson said.
He turned down an offer from Twitter four years ago
He has been noticed by other companies as well, including Twitter Inc. TWTR, +0.41% . In 2011, Twitter tried to poach Pichai to oversee products at the microblogging site after then-VP of product Jason Goldman stepped down. According to an AllThingsD article at the time citing unnamed sources, Google gave Pichai a significant pay raise to keep him on board.
His name was recently floated as a potential candidate for the role of CEO at Twitter, and FBR analyst William Bird said his promotion to CEO may have been a tactic by Page and Brin to keep Pichai on staff.
“The new structure offers an important way to promote and retain Sundar Pichai,” Bird said.
In 2014, Pichai was also floated as a potential candidate to fill the CEO role at Microsoft Corp. MSFT, -1.94% after Steve Ballmer stepped down. His leadership skills have been touted by current and former colleagues, including Beckmann, who, in the Quora post, said Pichai was known for his savvy in recruiting, mentoring and retaining talent.
“Sundar’s team of product managers had a reputation as being among the best of the best,” Beckmann said.
He’s been preparing for his promotion for almost a year
In a note to shareholders on Monday, Page said Pichai has “really stepped up since October” 2014, when he took on product and engineering responsibility for Google’s Internet business. “Sergey and I have been super excited about his progress,” Page said.
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