Washington, DC – Forty three-year-old Sundar Pichai recently became the new CEO of Google which in turn became a subsidiary to a new company called Alphabet, radically changing the structure of the Internet giant.
Pichai was born and brought up in Chennai and graduated from IIT-Kharagpur, where he did a BTech in metallurgical engineering. He went on to do a masters from Stanford University and an MBA from Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.
Pichai joined Google in 2004, the year the company launched Gmail. Google will convert into Alphabet on the Nasdaq stock exchange, but the stock will not split or change in any other way. From a unit perspective, other than the change at the very top, with Pichai replacing Page as CEO, it is business as usual.
Commenting on the meteoric rise of its alumni, Partha Pratim Chakrabarti, Director of IIT Kharagpur and himself an alumnus said, “IIT Kharagpur is proud and delighted that its Distinguished Alumnus Sundar Pichai, a graduate of 1993 and an Institute Medal awardee, is to take over as CEO of Google, one of the leading technology companies of the World today. He is a great inspiration for students of IIT Kharagpur. We wish him the very best.” Pichai has recently been awarded Distinguished Alumnus Award by IIT Kharagpur.
“Indian Americans are proud of one more IIT alumni has become CEO of the worlds largest corporation. We can only thank people of India and USA who have given us this opportunity,” said Vin Gupta, a serial entrepreneur and who is continuously supporting IIT Kharagpur in improving its facilities and academic environment. Vin Gupta established Vinod Gupta School of Management, a first within the IIT system and the VGSOM is ranked third in management schools in India today. Vin also has the distinction of providing Rajiv Gandhi School of Intellectual Property Law for developing the legal-tech framework for the students to learn about the evolving subject.
Expressing his pride in his alma mater IIT Kharagpur, Gulab Bhavnani, a 1966 Alumnus IIT Kharagpur and President, Anchor Systems Corp said, “It is a triumph for Sunder Pichai and a fitting tribute to the eminent Indian Institutes of Technology to see a fellow IIT Alum rise to the top of one of history’s most successful technology companies, Google.”
“With much pride, I join my colleagues of Indian origin in wishing Sunder much more success than he already has achieved at such a young (43 years) age. Sunder joins Satya Nadela CEO of Microsoft, another leader of Indian origin, in crafting the future of these most successful technology companies,” added Bhavnani.
Ron Gupta, a successful entrepreneur and founder-financier of Ranbir and Chitra Gupta School of Infrastructure and Design at IIT Kharagpur said, “This is indeed a proud moment for all IIT Kharagpur students, faculty and alumni. What is really great that IIT graduates are able to successfully leverage their high-level technical knowledge with business acumenship.”
The appointment is a source of pride not only for IIT Kharagpur but also for the whole IIT community as Arjun Sen, President, PanIIT USA said in a statement, “The entire IIT alumni community is proud of Sundar’s achievements. He is the 2013 PanIIT Technology Leadership award winner, an award that is given to the best in Technology Leadership among IIT Alumni. We wish him the best and his accomplishments will inspire all IITians.” Sen, President, PanIIT USA, an umbrella organization for all IIT Alumni groups, happens to be also hail from IIT Kharagpur.
Moreover, Pichai is looking forward to meeting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi who is scheduled to visit the Silicon Valley next month as is evident from a Twitter exchange between the two.
“@narendramodi @google Thanks for the warm wishes and hope to have the opportunity to meet you soon,” Pichai, replied to a tweet by Modi. “Congratulations @sundarpichai. My best wishes for the new role at @google,” Modi had tweeted earlier.