Eric Schmidt to Step Down as Executive Chairman of Google Parent company Alphabet Inc.

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Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG, GOOGL) today announced that, as of its next regular board meeting in January 2018, Eric Schmidt will be transitioning from his position as Executive Chairman of the Board and becoming a technical advisor to the company while continuing to serve on its board.

“Since 2001, Eric has provided us with business and engineering expertise and a clear vision about the future of technology,” said Larry Page, CEO of Alphabet. “Continuing his 17 years of service to the company, he’ll now be helping us as a technical advisor on science and technology issues. I’m incredibly excited about the progress our companies are making, and about the strong leaders who are driving that innovation.”

“Larry, Sergey, Sundar and I all believe that the time is right in Alphabet’s evolution for this transition. The Alphabet structure is working well, and Google and the Other Bets are thriving,” said Eric Schmidt. “In recent years, I’ve been spending a lot of my time on science and technology issues, and philanthropy, and I plan to expand that work.”

“Over 17 years, Eric has been tremendously effective and tireless in guiding our Board, particularly as we restructured from Google to Alphabet. He’ll now be able to bring that same focus and energy to his other passions, while continuing to advise Alphabet,” said John Hennessy, a member of Alphabet’s Board since 2004 and the lead independent director since 2007.

Eric tweeted “adult supervision no longer needed,” a reference to a comment co-founder Sergey Brin made on the Charlie Rose show when Google first hired him.

In the past several years, Schmidt has become increasingly involved in philanthropy through his own family foundation, which just launched a $25 million science fellowship, Rise of the Rest, which invests in startups in middle America, and the Alliance for Southern California Innovation. He also serves as a board member of the Broad Institute, which focuses on medicine and disease prevention and is a regular speaker globally, I’ve bumped in to him a few times on our travels and speaking engagements and he is a nice guy!

In his new role, he’s likely to advise the company’s urban development arm, Sidewalk Labs, with its deep learning efforts, and its healthcare spin-offs, Verily and Calico.

Alphabet expects that its board will appoint a new, non-executive chairman at its next meeting in January, meaning that it will join the ranks of Apple and Microsoft as major companies with non-executive chairman.

Wishing you all the best with the new chapter Eric! 🙂

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