Over the long run, Google rejects a**holes. Sundar became CEO among his peers, and yet his peers are still with him.
— Caesar Sengupta, who runs Google s Next Billion Users team and has worked under Sundar Pichai since 2007.
Pichai, who was named CEO of the one of the world s biggest tech companies less than a year ago, is profiled in BuzzFeed as a nice guy — maybe too nice, at least one former unnamed Googler says — who s taking the helm at a critical juncture: as the company expands globally amid plenty of competition, and as Google needs to prove it s more cool than creepy.
BuzzFeed s Matt Honan provides lots of interesting details: Pichai and his brother slept on the living room floor while growing up in a small house in Chennai; his mom dropped out of high school because of money; Pichai s appointment as Google CEO had people in India setting off firecrackers in the streets — but at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, the Google CEO was able to blend into the crowd.
Pichai s origins and perspective may serve Google well in a populous nation that isn t yet saturated with smartphones. Apple s iPhone reportedly has a 2 percent market share in India, compared with Android s 64 percent. And only about a quarter of Indians own a smartphone so far, according to BuzzFeed.
BuzzFeed cites Pichai s leadership of Android, the Chrome browser and Google Photos as proof that he s a successful product guy. And presents as an example as to how he has inspired loyalty in his employees the fact that he approved the unveiling of Cardboard, the company s virtual reality viewer, to the public without having seen the final product beforehand.
All of the above, plus Google co-founder Larry Page s confidence in him, has made Pichai a potential top earner in the tech industry this year. In February, Google awarded him restricted stock worth $199 million.
Photo: Sundar Pichai, then Google senior vice president in charge of Android and Chrome, talks about Google Play at Dogpatch Studios in San Francisco on July 24, 2013. Pichai is now Google s CEO. (Gary Reyes/Bay Area News Group)
The post Quoted: Google CEO Sundar Pichai as ideal for the job appeared first on SiliconBeat.