Former Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, has reportedly quit his position as the technical advisor to Alphabet Inc (Google’s parent company). That’s according to CNET, which claims that the veteran Silicon Valley leader left his position back in February, ending his 19-year run at the company. Schmidt, who joined Google as its CEO back in 2001, held several leadership positions at the search giant and its parent company over the years.
Prior to his role as the technical advisor, he served as the CEO of Google from 2001 to 2011, and then its executive chairman from 2011 to 2015 before a massive restructuring that saw the creation of Alphabet Inc – a holding company for Google and its subsidiaries. Thereafter, Schmidt served as the executive chairman of Alphabet from 2015 to 2017 before finally taking up the largely honorary position as the company’s technical advisor from 2017 to 2020, drawing a token salary of $1 per year.
While the technical advisor post was largely an honorary, non-executive position created just for him, it was as the company’s CEO and executive Chairman that his experience, business acumen and technical know-how really shone through.
As Google’s CEO in the first decade of this millennium, he not only oversaw its transition from a disruptive search startup to the biggest search engine in the world. But, he also helped it become the largest provider of other online services, including web-mail, mapping, cloud storage, and more. It was also under his leadership that the company acquired Android and transformed it into the largest mobile operating system in the world.
The latest development represents the end of an era at Alphabet, although, given that he wasn’t involved in its day-to-day functioning anymore, it’s unlikely that it will affect the company and its decision-making process. Either way, representatives for Schmidt and Google declined to comment on the report, so it will be interesting to see when either party confirms the news officially.
