<div>P Sundarajan, better known as Sundar Pichai (43), was named chief executive officer of the Silicon Valley behemoth on Monday (10 August), as Google unveiled a mega plan to restructure its company and house everything under a new holding company called Alphabet.</div><div> </div><div>His appointment makes him the latest Indian to earn a massively high-profile job in the US technology industry. Microsoft's Satya Nadella is the other notable example.</div><div> </div><div><strong>Here are 10 notable things to know about Sundar Pichai, the big thinker Google CEO</strong></div><div> </div><div><strong> 1) </strong>Pichai was born in Chennai, and completed his schooling from Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan. He later earned the Bachelors of Technology (BTech) degree in metallurgical engineering from IIT- Kharagpur. After graduating, he went to the United States to study at Stanford University — the alma mater of the Google founders and so many other early Googlers. </div><div> </div><div><strong>2)</strong> Before joining Google, Pichai worked for McKinsey & Company in management consulting. He got his start at Google in 2004, building the now defunct Google toolbar. Pichai had already emerged from a management reshuffle late last year as Google’s most powerful engineer below co-founder and chief executive Larry Page. Pichai has been given full control of an internet business whose expected revenues of $74 billion put it on top of the internet world. </div><div> </div><div><strong>3)</strong> Subdued and generally quiet, Pichai is admired at Google not just for his obvious engineering talents but also his general likability. Pichai is popular for having led product management and innovation of Google’s client software products such as Google Chrome and Chrome OS. He is believed to be the man responsible for driving Google’s Chrome OS and browser forward. </div><div> </div><div><strong>4)</strong> When he introduced Chrome to the world in 2008, the world reacted with puzzlement: How could it compete with Internet Explorer and Firefox? Yet Chrome eventually became the world's most used Web browser. Chrome even became a successful operating system for Chromebook laptops, used mostly by schools, according to a report in <em>CNN Money</em>. </div><div> </div><div><strong>5)</strong> As CEO of Google, he gets one more feather in his cap and adds a few more products to his now giant empire — search, ads, maps, apps, Android, Chrome and YouTube will now all be under his purview. YouTube will continue to be managed day to day by Susan Wojcicki, the long-time executive whose garage was where Google’s founders set up shop. </div><div> </div><div><strong>6)</strong> Pichai’s emergence as head of Google’s internet businesses follows a series of high-level departures which have reshaped management of the operation. They have included the resignation of Nikesh Arora, the company’s top business executive, who left to become number two at Japanese internet investment company SoftBank. </div><div> </div><div><strong>7) </strong>Pichai is believed to be the man responsible for keeping smooth ties with partners like Samsung. He recently also launched the Android One initiative in India by teaming up with local manufacturers like Micromax, Spice and Karbonn. </div><div> </div><div><strong>8)</strong> According to a profile in <em>Bloomberg Businessweek</em>, Pichai's upbringing was humble. His family lived in a two room apartment. Pichai didn't have a room -- he slept on the living room floor, as did his younger brother. The family didn't own a television, or a car. </div><div> </div><div>But Pichai's father planted the seeds of technology into his boy's mind, partly thanks to his job at British conglomerate General Electric Company. </div><div> </div><div><strong>9)</strong> According to a report in <em>The New York Times</em>, during his rise at Google, Pichai had suitors. In 2011, Twitter tried to lure Pichai over to run the company’s consumer product division, according to two people familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity because the talks were not made public. And last year, Pichai was rumored to be in the running to replace Steven Ballmer as chief executive of Microsoft. </div><div> </div><div><strong>10)</strong> In a letter to investors on 10 August, Google co-founder Lary Page said he feels “very fortunate to have someone as talented as he is to run the slightly slimmed down Google and this frees up time for me to continue to scale our aspirations...I know Sundar will always be focused on innovation—continuing to stretch boundaries...”.</div>
