11 July,2016 01:05 PM IST | | mid-day online correspondent
On the occasion of Google CEO Sundar Pichai's India visit, we look at some interesting facts about the tech giant's most valuable employee...
Sundar Pichai
Google CEO Sundar Pichai. Pic/AFP
>> Born Pichai Sundararajan in Madurai, Tamil Nadu, on July 12, 1972, Pichai spent his childhood and early adulthood in Chennai.
>> Sundar Pichai's father was a senior electrical engineer in General Electric and managed a factory that made electrical components.
>> Pichai holds a degree in Metallurgical Engineering from IIT Kharagpur, an M.S. (Master of Science) degree from Stanford University in Material Sciences and Engineering and a MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was named a Siebel Scholar and a Palmer Scholar, respectively.
>> Sundar Pichai resides in Los Altos Hills, California, United States with his wife Anjali Pichai, a chemical engineer, who was his classmate at IIT Kharagpur. They have two children.
>> Before joining Google, Pichai worked in engineering and product management at Applied Materials and in management consulting at the firm McKinsey & Company.
>> Sundar Pichai was reportedly a contender for Microsoft's chief executive officer in 2014, a position that was eventually given to fellow Indian-origin executive Satya Nadella.
>> Pichai has been a part of Google since 2004 and has led product management and innovation efforts for Google Chrome, Chrome OS and Google Drive among other products. He has also overseen development of different apps such as Gmail and Google Maps.
>> Sundar Pichai demonstrated the Chrome OS and Chromebook on November 19, 2009, the latter which was released for trial and testing in 2011 and later to the public in 2012.
>> Pichai also announced the open-sourcing of the new video codec VP8 by Google, and introduced the new video format WebM on May 20, 2010.
>> Sundar Pichai was director of Jive Software from April 2011 to July 30, 2013 and added Android on March 13, 2013, which was formerly managed by Andy Rubin, to the list of Google products he oversees.
>> Pichai, who was appointed Product Chief by CEO Larry Page on October 24, 2014, assumed the role of CEO almost a year later on October 5, 2015, two months after the announcement was made on August 10, 2015. This was after the completion of the formation of Alphabet Inc., the new holding company for the Google company family.
