Guy who 'gets shit done': Sundar Pichai was always frontrunner to be Google CEO

Post Google’s I/O address in 2014, the focus was squarely on one man in the team: Android and Chrome’s head and Senior VP at Google, Sundar Pichai who is now taking over the reigns from Larry Page as CEO. Both The Information (paywall) and Bloomberg’s BusinessWeek had at the time put out extensive profiles of the man who the media saw as a strong contender to be the next Google CEO. The Information’s piece titled, “At Google, Larry Page Finds His Right-Hand Man.” noted: “If Larry Page stopped being Google’s CEO today, Sundar Pichai would undoubtedly be his replacement.” The piece pointed out how Pichai became a trusted lieutenant for Google’s top boss and when Page wanted to try convince WhatsApp founder Jan Koum to not sell to Facebook, Pichai had accompanied him. He also helped broker the Nest deal for Google. The report also points out how Pichai is a strong team player who gets the job done. One employee told the website, “He got s**t done without alienating the entire company.” It also pointed to how Pichai stood by his team. The report said that when Pichai reported to Marissa Mayer, he would wait for hours outside her office to make sure that she gave his team good work-performance scores. The BusinessWeek profile by Brad Stone pointed to how Pichai could also stand his ground and play the role of a tough, frank negotiator. The report recounted how Pichai helped broker peace with Samsung when the company had launched its own Magazine UX with the Galaxy Note 3 and had taken the focus off Google Play products. Stone wrote, “Pichai set up a series of meetings with J.K. Shin, chief executive officer of Samsung Mobile Communications, at the Wynn (WYNN) hotel on the Vegas strip, at Google’s offices in Mountain View, Calif., and again in February at the Mobile World Congress convention in Barcelona. Pichai says they held ‘frank conversations’ about the companies’ intertwined fates. A fragile peace was forged. Samsung agreed to scale back Magazine UX and, signaling a new era of cooperation, the two companies announced a broad patent cross-licensing arrangement.” Pichai also has a strong supporter in Google CEO Larry Page. As the profile said, “Page says Pichai ‘has deep technical expertise, a great product eye, and tremendous entrepreneurial flair. This is a rare combination, which is what makes him a great leader.’” Born in Chennai, Pichai studied engineering at IIT-Khargpur and later studied at Standford and Wharton. At Google, Pichai was initially a product manager, who handled the ‘Google’ search bar in the upper right corner of Web browsers. This was before the days of Google Chrome, and when IE was dominant. Google Chrome was launched by his team in 2008. In 2011, when Larry Page returned as CEO, Pichai was promoted to Senior VP and also took charge of Gmail and Google Docs. In 2013, he replaced Andy Rubin as the head of Android and Chrome. And it’s not like rivals haven’t tried to get him to join their team. During the hunt to appoint a new Microsoft CEO, Pichai’s name was also considered as a possible contender. In 2011, Twitter too tried to poach him as a head of product. As Google’s I/O conference revealed in 2014, Android is the OS that will take the company forward and they intend to make it a part of everything else and not leave it at mobile. There’s no doubt that Pichai who was the head of Android is the best choice for Google CEO. Editors note:  This post was originally published in Tech2.com  in June 2014 and has been modified