Sundar Pichai To Lead Both Google And Alphabet; Larry Page, Sergey Brin Step Down

Pichai ‘will be the executive responsible and accountable for leading Google, and managing Alphabet’s investment in our portfolio of Other Bets.’

Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page announced on Tuesday they would give their leadership roles at holding company Alphabet Inc. to Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

“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,” Brin, who worked as Alphabet CEO, and Page, who worked as president of the holding company, wrote in a blog post. “We’ve never been ones to hold on to management roles when we think there’s a better way to run the company.”

According to the blog post, Pichai “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!”

Alphabet said that Page and Brin will remain active as co-founders, shareholders and board members.

Pichai, 45, has been CEO of Google since 2015 and a member of the company’s board since 2017. He previously served as Google’s senior vice president of products from 2014 to 2015, and as Google’s senior vice president of Android, Chrome and Apps from 2013 to 2014. Prior to joining Google, Pichai worked in engineering and product management at Applied Materials Inc., a semiconductor company, and in management consulting at McKinsey & Company.

Google, founded in 1998 as a search engine, has morphed into one of the largest tech companies in the world, with business units focused on cloud computing, life sciences and internet products all now under the Alphabet umbrella.

Alphabet stock was up less than one percent in after-hours trading on Tuesday to $1,302.38.