

Pichai didn’t start in the C-suite he worked on Google’s search bar when he joined the company in 2004 and then spearheaded the creation of its Chrome browser.
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and eventually earning a Wharton MBA - and his professional path. That’s a reflection of both his personal journey - from a modest childhood in India to attending college in the U.S. Nine of his projects boast one billion users, and five are nearly at two billion.Īsk those who know him to describe Pichai, and “humble” is a word you’ll invariably hear. Consider his company’s reach: Besides the search engine that’s both a brand and a verb, there are the Google products that touch nearly every aspect of our lives (Gmail, Docs, Android, Maps, etc.) YouTube (the world’s second most visited website, behind Google itself, of course) and companies under the Alphabet umbrella (Waze, Nest, and more). From authoring an op-ed on data privacy for the New York Times last year, to speaking about the boundless possibilities for artificial intelligence at the World Economic Forum in January, to penning a message to his employees - and the globe - about Google’s response and responsibility in the age of COVID-19, Pichai’s profile is high, and his influence is profound. There’s no flying under the radar for the 47-year-old now. Of course, that was before Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin stepped aside in December 2019 and added CEO of Alphabet, Google’s holding company, to Pichai’s title. Even after looking at the name on his badge, the rep had no clue that this curious, friendly inquisitor was one of the most powerful people in technology. Pichai had been promoted to CEO of Google just a few months before, but among the throngs at CES, he still managed to circulate in anonymity. Four years ago, on the floor of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Sundar Pichai WG02 began chatting with a representative who was showing off a smart refrigerator.
