Larry Page is exiting the role of CEO for Alphabet, and Sundar Pichai will be taking over the role. For Sundar Pichai, this role will be in addition to his present role as CEO for Google. Google, Co-Founder Sergey Brin will also step down from the role of President of Alphabet. The role of President is set to be eliminated and there will be no fresh appointments or transitions to the same.
Here is an excerpt from the letter from Larry Page and Sergey Brin, announcing the change-
Today, in 2019, if the company was a person, it would be a young adult of 21 and it would be time to leave the roost. While it has been a tremendous privilege to be deeply involved in the day-to-day management of the company for so long, we believe it’s time to assume the role of proud parents—offering advice and love, but not daily nagging!
With Alphabet now well-established, and Google and the Other Bets operating effectively as independent companies, it’s the natural time to simplify our management structure. We’ve never been ones to hold on to management roles when we think there’s a better way to run the company. And Alphabet and Google no longer need two CEOs and a President. Going forward, Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet. He will be the executive responsible and accountable for leading Google, and managing Alphabet’s investment in our portfolio of Other Bets. We are deeply committed to Google and Alphabet for the long term, and will remain actively involved as Board members, shareholders and co-founders. In addition, we plan to continue talking with Sundar regularly, especially on topics we’re passionate about!
Sundar brings humility and a deep passion for technology to our users, partners and our employees every day. He’s worked closely with us for 15 years, through the formation of Alphabet, as CEO of Google, and a member of the Alphabet Board of Directors. He shares our confidence in the value of the Alphabet structure, and the ability it provides us to tackle big challenges through technology. There is no one that we have relied on more since Alphabet was founded, and no better person to lead Google and Alphabet into the future.
Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Founder , Google
On the leadership transition, Sundar Pichai said:
I first met Larry and Sergey back in 2004 and have been benefiting from their guidance and insights ever since. The good news is I’ll continue to work with them — although in different roles for them and me. They’ll still be around to advise as board members and co-founders.
I want to be clear that this transition won’t affect the Alphabet structure or the work we do day to day. I will continue to be very focused on Google and the deep work we’re doing to push the boundaries of computing and build a more helpful Google for everyone. At the same time, I’m excited about Alphabet and its long term focus on tackling big challenges through technology.
Sundar Pichai, CEO, Google
Alphabet had been created in 2015 with a restructuring at Google to create a parent company. One of the key objectives towards creating Alphabet was to “make it cleaner and more accountable.” As Google started growing, a set of new companies, new ideas emerged. Some of them were entirely unrelated. It was realized that the unique and unrelated businesses needed their own space and approach to working. There was a need for more independence for the concerned business leaders. All of this led to the creation of Alphabet. As it was stated in Larry Page’s statement then,
” Fundamentally, we believe this allows us more management scale, as we can run things independently that aren’t very related.
Alphabet is about businesses prospering through strong leaders and independence. In general, our model is to have a strong CEO who runs each business, with Sergey and me in service to them as needed. “
Larry Page, Co Founder, Google
Alphabet, also included the new initiatives – X lab, drone delivery business, and their investment arms – Ventures and Capital.
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