11
News India Times August 21, 2015
– that’s all you need to know
Cover Story
By Brian Fung and Hayley
Tsukayama
G
oogle is waking up to a new
chief executive serving
within a new corporate
structure, one that makes the
search engine business a sub-
sidiary of a holding company
called Alphabet. Co-founders,
Larry Page and Sergey Brin, will
now take on leadership of the par-
ent company, leaving Google itself
in the hands of 43-year-old Sundar
Pichai.
Who is Pichai? And why was he
chosen to lead Alphabet's most
important division? Here's every-
thing you need to know about the
search giant's Indian-born leader.
—You know how Google's the
default search engine for many
Web browsers? That was Pichai's
work.
This probably doesn't sound
like an exciting development, but
making Google the default search
engine in Internet Explorer and
Firefox was critical in increasing
Google's ubiquity. And, as Miguel
Heft wrote in a 2014 piece on
Pichai for Fortune, Pichai's dogged
work on that product helped
cement his reputation as a hard
worker with the company's best
interests in mind.
Pichai also helped make the
case for Google's own Chrome
browser when, in 2006, an update
to Internet Explorer reportedly
threatened to undercut Google's
position in the browser field. The
result was Chrome, a new plat-
form where Google would never
have to worry about playing sec-
ond fiddle to anyone.
Together these moves helped
extend Google's reach during a
crucial period of growth. Without
Pichai's efforts, Google probably
wouldn't be as popular as it is
today.
— So is everything that hap-
pens on Android.
Since then, Pichai has gone on
to manage other well-known
Google applications, such as
Gmail and Maps. But it's his most
recent work overseeing Android
that really put him on the tech
world's radar. After taking over the
unit in 2013, Pichai has rolled out
three new versions of the mobile
operating system, Jelly Bean, Kit
Kat and the latest, Lollipop.
Android accounts for 65 percent of
the U.S. smartphone market
alone. And at a developer confer-
ence this year, Pichai announced a
slew of new operating systems
aimed at everything from cars to
thermostats.
"We are taking computing
beyond mobile," he said at the
time.
—Now this "nice guy" will be
overseeing even more.
Analysts seem to be welcoming
Pichai's ascent to chief executive.
He now seems to have intimate
knowledge of seemingly every
piece of Google. His affable, soft-
spoken manner is a big contrast
from some of the eccentric, hard-
charging personalities that popu-
late SiliconValley. Here's what the
founder of Giga Om, OmMalik,
had to say on Twitter about Pichai
when he got promoted to senior
vice president of products last
year:
"So @sundarpichai got a pro-
motion to @google product czar.
Congrats & proof nice guys can
win. Though rapid reduction of
odds of our dinner!"
That promotion has already
given us a small glimpse into what
Pichai's Google could look like —
one that's very user-focused.
During the keynote at this sum-
mer's Google I/O developers con-
ference, Pichai focused heavily on
Google's potential to connect con-
sumers in emerging technology
markets and provide every person
on earth the opportunity to con-
nect with smart devices.
"When we say 'be together, not
the same,' that is precisely what
we mean," Pichai said, in front of a
world map of Android users. "We
want to make sure we leave no
one behind. We want to provide
Android for users the way they like
it, so that it works for them."
— Pichai translates Larry Page
for the company
With a refocused Google, many
expect to see Pichai focus heavily
on user-experience as the compa-
ny strives to become the operating
system for phones, smart devices,
cars and everything else — a battle
it will have to fight against Apple,
Microsoft and Amazon.
Pichai is able to think both
practically and conceptually — an
asset within Google. Business
Insider, citing anonymous sources
at Google, reports that Pichai is
known for being a "spokesman"
and translator for Page, whose big
thoughts don't always make sense
in the context of running the com-
pany day-to-day. This could mean
that we'll continue to see Page's
influence on Google, if somewhat
more subtly.
Page clearly thinks highly of
Pichai, and his ability to think big
and small. In the blog post
announcing the Alphabet change,
Page said, "Google itself is also
making all sorts of new products,
and I know Sundar will always be
focused on innovation -- continu-
ing to stretch boundaries. I know
he deeply cares that we can con-
tinue to make big strides on our
core mission to organize the
world's information."
— Pichai is now among the
country's most powerful minority
leaders.
Like Microsoft's chief executive
Satya Nadella, Pichai is an Indian
immigrant to the States. He stud-
ied metallurgical engineering at
the Indian Institute of Technology
Kharagpur.
And he later earned graduate
degrees in material science from
Stanford University and in busi-
ness from the University of
Pennsylvania'sWharton School.
—How did Pichai get started at
Google?
Pichai did a stint at the consult-
ing company McKinsey but
according to the NewYork Times,
he left for Google after "trying to
talk one of his McKinsey col-
leagues out of going there, then
realizing the arguments in favor of
joining the company were better."
He actually interviewed at Google
on April 1, 2004 — the same day
Google launched Gmail, according
to Bloomberg.
— If he's so great, how has
nobody else tried to hire him?
Actually, Pichai's name was
floated among tech insiders as a
possible successor to former
Microsoft chief executive Steve
Ballmer, before that job ultimately
went to Nadella. He has also been
on some short lists for Twitter's
chief executive position. With
word of the promotion yesterday,
even more kudos poured in --
including from his competitors
Nadella and Apple chief executive
Tim Cook, as well as from Indian
prime minister Narendra Modi.
– TheWashington Post
7 Quick Facts About Sundar Pichai, Google’s New CEO
By Suman Guha
Mozumder
uring his IIT
Kharagpur days
in the early
1990s, most of
his friends used
to call Sundar
Pichai, a “Chhupa
Rustam.” People, who
went to IIT with him
around the same time and
live in the United States
now recalled last week
that almost all his friends
called him by that name.
The nickname was
given by his friends
because of Sundar’s ability
to keep things close to his
chest and spring surprises
when nobody was expect-
ing them. “He was always
very cool and focused not
only in his studies, but vir-
tually in everything that
he did,” said Joy
Bhattacharya, who was
one year senior to Sundar
in Kharagpur, and knows
him well even today.
Bhattacharya, who was
president of the Bay Area
chapter of IIT Foundation
from 2007 to 2012, said his
friends gave him this nick-
name “Chhupa Rustam”
after one day it turned out
that he was in love with a
batch mate named Anjali
Haryani, who was study-
ing chemical engineering.
“Even his very close
friends who spent hours
with him every day, had
no clue about this rela-
tionship till the time
“Sundy” chose to disclose
it,” Bhattacharya, an engi-
neering consultant at
architecture and engineer-
ing company Stantec,
said. Later, the two tied
the knot, and Anjali now
lives with her husband in
Bay Area.
Both Bhattacharya and
Avik Pal ,who was one year
junior to Sundar, and is
now president of IIT
Foundation, Bay area
Chapter, said their friend
was of course brilliant in
studies, but at the same
time a very “lively” kind of
a person. Both of them
along with Sundar lived in
Nehru Hall, a dorm for
students in Kharagpur,
and saw him from close
quarters. The two have
met with Sundar many
times in the Bay Area in
social kind of settings.
“I must also add that
Sundar loved to read a lot,
and had a great interest in
cricket which he used to
play even while he was in
Madras for his school
team,” Bhattacharya
recalled.
They attested the fact
reported by various news-
papers this past week that
Sundar is a very low-key
person. “That’s is true – he
used to talk less, but when
he talked people got to lis-
ten to him, and that is true
even today,” Pal said.
After his appointment
as Google CEO, IIT-
Kharagpur has started a
Facebook Event page to
congratulate Pichai who
passed out from the insti-
tute in 1989. The page
"congratulate KGPian
Sundar Pichai, CEO –
Google," has a photo of a
smiling Pichai standing in
front of IIT campus.
Within days after it was
started August 11 2,500
guests had visited the
page. “This event is to run
a campaign to congratu-
late KGP alumnus Sundar
Pichai on becoming the
CEO of Google," said the
page hosts. The messages
will be forwarded to
Pichai.
Pal from Bay Area said
the IITians are planning a
celebration of Pichai’s ele-
vation in Bay Area within
the next few weeks. “We
are already working on the
details to honor and felici-
tate him in a formal way.”
D
What His Friends At IIT
Thought Of Pichai
