--- description: Sundar Pichai, the company's current senior vice president of products, is taking over leadership of a slimmed-down Google title: Everything You Need to Know About the New CEO of Google image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3f5fdee8ac09474a/69885e9e0b72e3f1736e551c/sundar-pichai2.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Business](/section/business/) ## Business Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Google](/tag/google/) ## Google Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Everything You Need to Know About the New CEO of Google by [Victor Luckerson](/author/victor-luckerson/) ## Victor Luckerson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Aug 10, 2015 11:34 PM CUT  Sundar Pichai, senior vice-president of Products for Google Inc., speaks during the Google I/O Annual Developers Conference in San Francisco on May 28, 2015. Sundar Pichai, senior vice-president of Products for Google Inc., speaks during the Google I/O Annual Developers Conference in San Francisco on May 28, 2015.David Paul Morris—Bloomberg/Getty Images by [Victor Luckerson](/author/victor-luckerson/) ## Victor Luckerson Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Aug 10, 2015 11:34 PM CUT Google threw the tech world for a loop Monday when it [announced](http://time.com/3991647/google-alphabet/ "undefined") it was separating its core business and its myriad other ventures into a [constellation of companies](http://time.com/3991798/google-alphabet-companies/ "undefined") that would all be part of the larger company Alphabet. Google founder and CEO Larry Page will now be the CEO of Alphabet. Replacing him at Google is Sundar Pichai, Google’s current senior vice president of products. Though Page noted in a [blog post](http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2015/08/google-alphabet.html "undefined") that the new Google will be a “slimmed down” version of its former self, Pichai will still have plenty on his plate. Google will retain core businesses, including search, ads, Maps, apps, YouTube and Android, meaning that tens of thousands of employees will still be reporting to Pichai. The former consultant and Stanford University dropout has risen through the ranks of Google over the last decade to become the most visible face at the company, serving as the master of ceremonies at Google’s annual I/O event and leading up almost all of the company’s key consumer products. Here are five key facts about Sundar Pichai, Google’s next CEO. ### **He’s the reason you’re using Google Chrome** Pichai started at Google in 2004 working on the search toolbar that the company puts in Internet browsers. He thought that Google should have its own browser, even though the company was still mainly known for its search engine. Pichai eventually spearheaded the creation of Chrome, which has surpassed Microsoft’s Internet Explorer as the most popular browser in the U.S. The Chrome brand has since expanded to include a successful line of laptops and streaming devices. ### **He has slowly taken over almost all Google consumer products** After Chrome’s success, Pichai also came to oversee Gmail and Google Docs in 2011, according to a [Businessweek profile](http://www.bloomberg.com/bw/articles/2014-06-24/googles-sundar-pichai-king-of-android-master-of-mobile-profile "undefined"). In 2013, he also took the helm over Android, perhaps the most important division at Google as the company battles Apple for mobile supremacy. In 2014 he was named the company’s product chief, bringing services like Maps and Google+ under his wing as well. **Read more** [Read TIME’s 2013 cover story, ‘Google vs. Death’](http://time.com/574/google-vs-death/?iid=time%5Fspeed "undefined") ### **He’s Larry Page’s right-hand man** Page has increasingly relied on Pichai since starting his second stint as Google’s CEO in 2011\. Last year’s restructuring had already made Pichai’s unofficial No. 2\. Now Page will have even more time to focus on Google’s other big bets while Pichai manages the company’s core competencies. “Sundar has been saying the things I would have said (and sometimes better!) for quite some time now, and I’ve been tremendously enjoying our work together,” Page said in the blog post announcing Alphabet. “I know he deeply cares that we can continue to make big strides on our core mission to organize the world’s information.” ### **He’s a unifier within the company** With more than 55,000 employees, getting the different divisions within Google to play nice together is an ongoing challenge. Pichai seems to have a knack for it. Since taking over Android he’s made big strides with Google Now by creating interdisciplinary teams from the company’s Android and search departments. “I would challenge you to find anyone at Google who doesn’t like Sundar or who thinks Sundar is a jerk,” Googler Caesar Sengupta told Businessweek. ### **He’s the company’s first non-white CEO** Born in Chennai, India, Pichai will be the first CEO of Google that isn’t a white man. He studied engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur and came to America to study materials science and semiconductor physics at Stanford, though he eventually dropped out. He’ll join Microsoft chief Satya Nadella as one of the few high-profile minority CEOs in consumer tech. ### The 10 Most Ambitious Google Projects  Google Driverless Car The Google Self-Driving Car has been in the works since 2005 after a team of engineers won a grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to design an autonomous car. The project, which aims to reduce traffic accidents, has made headway in recent years as states passed laws permitting self-driving cars. Google plans a commercial release between 2017 and 2020. David Paul Morris—Bloomberg/Getty Images  Google has been testing balloons which sail into the stratosphere and beam Internet down to Earth. Jon Shenk—AP  Google's smart contact lenses. Google/AP  Google Lively Google Lively was a web-based virtual community space where users could design avatars, chat with one another and personalize their online hangout space. The project was discontinued after a six-month stint in 2008 after limited success. Google/AP  Google Earth Google's virtual map of the Earth allows users to tour the earth with 3-D satellite images. The project, which dates back to 2004, has already found significant applications in disaster relief. Google/AP  Project Ara Google's build-your-own-smartphone project allows users to customize their handsets to their own preferences, with the possibility of eliminating electronic waste by encouraging users to add hardware updates on their own terms. The team is working towards a limited market pilot in 2015. Bryan Bedder—Getty Images for Engadget Expand  Disease Detecting Pill Google unveiled its plans to disease-detecting ingestible pill in October, a project that'll let patients access their real-time health data to encourage preventative care. The pill will contain nanoparticles that can bind to certain cells and chemicals, with the possibility of detecting diseases like cancer in early stages. Getty Images  Flying Wind Turbines The flying windmill is the project of Makani Power, a wind turbine developer acquired by Google in 2013\. The tethered airborne turbines will harness wind energy for the goal of producing low-cost, renewable energy Andrea Dunlap—Makani Power/AP  Google+ Google's social networking platform launched in 2011, the most successful service after several flops at designing a Facebook competitor, like the now-retired Google Buzz. Today, Google+ boasts over half a billion monthly active users. Stephen Lam—Reuters  Google Books Google Books dates back to 2004, when Google partnered with libraries and universities to plan to digitize millions of volumes over the next several years. The project aims to make searching books as easy as searching the web. Getty Images _Read next:_ [_Alphabet, Google’s New Company, Has the Most Unusual URL_](http://time.com/money/3992467/google-alphabet-url/?iid=time%5Freadnext "undefined") [_Listen to the most important stories of the day_](http://time.com/newsletter/the-brief/autoplay/?xid=spl-fullbrief-article "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3991954/google-alphabet-sundar-pichai-ceo/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3991954/google-alphabet-sundar-pichai-ceo/"},"headline":"Everything You Need to Know About the New CEO of Google","datePublished":"2015-08-10T23:34:12.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:02:05.907Z","description":"He's the reason you may be reading this on Chrome","url":"https://time.com/3991954/google-alphabet-sundar-pichai-ceo/","keywords":["Google","Chrome","CEO","Alphabet"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3f5fdee8ac09474a/69885e9e0b72e3f1736e551c/sundar-pichai2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Victor Luckerson","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/victor-luckerson/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3f5fdee8ac09474a/69885e9e0b72e3f1736e551c/sundar-pichai2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Sundar Pichai, senior vice-president of Products for Google Inc., speaks during the Google I/O Annual Developers Conference in San Francisco on May 28, 2015.","caption":"Sundar Pichai, senior vice-president of Products for Google Inc., speaks during the Google I/O Annual Developers Conference in San Francisco on May 28, 2015.","creditText":"David Paul Morris—Bloomberg/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/google/","name":"Google"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3991954/google-alphabet-sundar-pichai-ceo/","name":"Everything You Need to Know About the New CEO of Google"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"How Google Makes its Doodles","description":"Our videographer went to the Googleplex in Mountain View, California to meet some of the designers and coders who create the special, clever variations on the Google.com logo known as","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/upF0qp1E/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2018-07-07T16:09:57.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/upF0qp1E.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3991954/google-alphabet-sundar-pichai-ceo/","duration":"PT3M23S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3991954/google-alphabet-sundar-pichai-ceo/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```