Here are some key facts about Pichai:
- Born in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India on June 10, 1972
- Worked at McKinsey & Co before Google
- Was hired by Google as a product engineer in April 2004
- Projects included using the URL bar to search as well as scaling up Google’s Chrome browser, which launched in 2008, as a way to attract more queries to Google
- Pichai took over the Android business from that group’s founder, Andy Rubin, managing the market-leading smartphone operating system globally
- He is also credited with the development of some of the company’s most successful cloud-based apps, such as Gmail
- In 2014, then-Chief Executive Page put Pichai, one of his key lieutenants, in charge of the internet company’s search, maps, Google+, commerce, advertising and infrastructure. The move was done to give Page fewer direct reports and product units to oversee.
- Pichai became CEO of Google in 2015 and all of Alphabet in 2019.
- Alphabet, Google’s parent company, has a long list of other businesses. These include maps and Nest smart thermostats. Since Pichai became CEO, it acquired Fitbit in 2021 and the security company Mandiant in 2022.
- In February, Pichai introduced the artificial intelligence service Bard.
- Pichai’s total compensation was about $226 million in 2022, more than 800 times the median employee’s pay, the company said in a securities filing in April.
