Background

Sundar Pichai is the CEO of the internet giant Alphabet and its main subsidiary, Google. Born Pichai Sundararajan in Chennai, India, on June 10, 1972, he grew up in a working middle-class family. His father, Regunatha Pichai, was an electrical engineer who managed a British-owned company, GEC, that made electrical components. His mother worked as a stenographer prior to having her two children.

Immigration to the United States

Pichai was an outstanding student and showed great promise in his youth. His success in academics followed him through school at Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan. He went on to the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, considered one of India’s top engineering schools, where he earned his bachelor’s of technology in metallurgical engineering. After winning a scholarship, he moved to the United States to pursue his master’s degree in materials science and semiconductor physics at Stanford University. He then went on to earn his MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Professional Background & Achievements

After completing his studies, Pichai went to work for McKinsey & Company in engineering and management for applied materials before moving in 2004 to Google, where he worked in product management, overseeing the development of many Google innovative products, including Google Chrome, Chrome OS, and Google Drive. In 2013, he took over the management of Android, the mobile operating system. In 2015, Google selected Pichai as its new CEO, and he stepped into the role just as the formation of Google’s new holding company, Alphabet, was being completed. In 2019 he was named the CEO of Alphabet.

Contributions to the U.S. Economy

After over 15 years at Google, Pichai is the CEO of Alphabet, of which Google is a subsidiary. His contributions to the American economy through the innovations at Google are too numerous to measure.