From metallurgy grad to net geek: Five things to know about the new Google CEO Sundar Pichai

From metallurgy grad to net geek: Five things to know about the new Google CEO Sundar Pichai..

1. Sundar Pichai was born in Chennai on July 12, 1972. He studied Metallurgical Engineering in IIT-Kharagpur. He received an MS degree from Stanford University and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He joined Google in 2004 as vice-president of product management. Previously, Pichai worked at Applied Materials as an engineer and at McKinsey as a management consultant.

2. Pichai spearheaded the launch of Google Chrome in 2008 which has swiftly become one of the most popular web browsers in the world. A year later, Pichai also oversaw the launch of the Chrome operating system for netbooks and desktop computers. In 2012, he was given the additional responsibility of overseeing Google Apps.

3. Pichai was put in charge of Google Android when Andy Rubin stepped down in March 2013. He oversaw Google’s ambitious Android One project through which the internet giant is looking to push low-cost Android smartphones so as to reach out the next fi ve billion users in emerging markets.

4. He took on the product and engineering responsibilities of all of Google’s core products except YouTube in October, last year. These include search, maps, research, Google+, Android, Chrome, infrastructure, commerce and ads, and Google Apps.

5. Over the past few years, internet companies like Twitter have unsuccessfully tried to poach Pichai from Google. Twitter had aggressively tried to hire Pichai to potentially lead its product in 2011. Google offered a counter offer that made Pichai stay at Google.