Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Alphabet and its subsidiary Google, is one of the influential figures in the tech world. Like many tech CEOs, he was born in India and immigrated to the United States. Though Picha’s rise to the top of the tech world was swift, he didn’t begin his career at Google. He arrived at Google at the right time and was soon the go-to person for Google’s founders.
9 things about Sundar Pichai
1. Pichai was a metallurgical engineer and got his MBA from Wharton
Pichai was born in India. He got his undergraduate degree in metallurgical engineering from IIT Kharagpur and a master’s degree in material science and engineering from Stanford. He received his MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
2. He worked at Applied Materials and McKinsey. At Google, he worked on several impactful products
Pichai worked in engineering and product management roles at Applied Materials. After getting his MBA, he worked as a consultant at McKinsey. He joined Google in 2004. He worked in product management roles for several Google products including Google Chrome, Chrome OS, Google Drive, Gmail, Google Maps, and Android.
3. He was the Product Chief at Google before becoming CEO
Pichai became the CEO of Google in 2015. He was the head of product development at Google before becoming the CEO. Whenever a new tech CEO position becomes open, Pichai is often touted as a contender, but he has stayed loyal to Google.
4. He met his wife Anjali at IIT Kharagpur
Pichai met his wife at IIT Kharagpur where she was pursuing a degree in chemical engineering. They got engaged during their final year in college. After Pichai moved to the US to study, the couple maintained a long-distance relationship for a few years before getting married. They have two children – a daughter Kavya and a son Kiran.
5. He took a strong stand on Google’s diversity initiatives
In 2017. Pichai fired a Google employee who wrote a ten-page memo criticizing the company’s diversity policies. The employee argued that biological differences explain why we don’t see equal representation of women in the technology sector and leadership. Pichai wrote a memo to employees telling them that the fired employee’s memo was offensive and not in line with Google’s values.
6. He loves soccer and cricket fan
In his free time, Sundar loves to watch cricket and soccer. Pichai was the captain of his high school cricket team. He is a big fan of Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi and the Barcelona soccer team.
Messi has given so much joy over the years and arguably the best ever, so well deserved. Congrats Argentina, well played Brasil. Jogo Bonito. #CopaAmerica
— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) July 11, 2021
6. Pichai was loyal to his team at Google
When Sundar Pichai was working for Marissa Mayer, he would wait for hours outside her office to ensure that his team’s work was recognized and that his team got high performance scores.
7. Pichai has a remarkable ability to remember details
One of the traits that made Pichai successful is his ability to remember details, process them and take action. When he was young, Pichai had the unique ability to remember a large number of phone numbers.
8. Pichai was a director at augmented reality company Magic Leap
Pichai served as a Board director at Magic Leap from 2014 to 2018. The company made augmented reality headsets but its product didn’t take off as expected. The company was founded in 2010 by Rony Abovitz and raised money from high-profile investors including Google and Alibaba.
9. He is a billionaire
Not surprisingly, he is a billionaire. . Though his base salary is only $2 million, he owns enough Google stock and stock options to make him a billionaire. He lives in a 10,557 sq. ft home in Los Altos Hills, which is one of the best places to live in California.
