Sundar Pichai - Navo

• Sundar Pichai is a computer engineer and the current CEO of Google Inc. The technology giant Google, which specializes in Internet-related services and products, underwent a major corporate restructuring in 2015 following which Alphabet Inc was launched as its parent company with co-founders Larry Page as its CEO and Sergey Brin as President.
• Pichai, who had been serving as Google’s head of Products and Engineering, was named the new CEO of Google which is the biggest company under Alphabet Inc. Mr. Pichai had joined Google years ago in 2004 as a product manager and led the innovative efforts for several of Google’s products including Google Chrome and Chrome OS which went on to become highly successful. 
• Eventually he took over the management of other Google products like Gmail and Google Docs, and rose through the ranks rapidly. Born in Chennai, India, Pichai was bright and creative from a young age. Having received his education from some of the most prestigious institutions in the world, he worked in engineering and product management at Applied Materials and in management consulting at McKinsey & Company before becoming a part of Google.

EARLY LIFE

• He was born as Pichai Sundararajan on July 12, 1972, in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. His father, Regunatha Pichai, worked as an electrical engineer for the British conglomerate GEC and managed a factory that made electrical components. 
• His mother used to be a stenographer before having children. He has one brother. Pichai grew up in a middle-class home and was a bright student. He excelled academically at his school, Padma Seshadri Bala Bhavan, and earned a seat in the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, one of the most prestigious engineering institutions in India.

EDUCATION

• He initially planned to pursue a Ph.D. from Stanford and embark on an academic career. However, he dropped out and joined Applied Materials—a Silicon Valley semiconductor makeras an engineer and product manager. He did not work there for long.
• He went on to complete his MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania (2002), where he was named a Siebel Scholar and a Palmer Scholar.Following the completion of his MBA he was appointed as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company.
• He joined Google in 2004. Initially he worked on Google’s search toolbar as a part of a small team. The toolbar gave users of Internet Explorer and Firefox easy access to Google search.He also worked on other Google products like Google Gears and Google Pack. The success of Google’s toolbar gave Pichai the idea that Google should develop its own browser. He discussed his idea with his seniors and faced an objection from then-CEO Eric Schmidt, who thought that developing a browser would be a too expensive affair.
• However, Pichai persevered and convinced the co-founders of Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, to launch Google’s own browser. Pichai played a pivotal role in the ultimate launch of the browser, Google Chrome, in 2008. Chrome proved to be a great success as it allowed the users to directly access Google’s search engine.

FUN FACTS

• Sundar Pichai is a huge cricket fan and was the captain of his school cricket team.
• His family did not possess a phone until he was 12.
• He once tried to talk a friend out of working at Google before joining the company himself.
• Sundar Pichai joined Google even before the company went public.
• He is very good at remembering numbers and could remember every telephone number he dialed when he was young.