MIT Forefront

Sundar Pichai

CEO, Google and Alphabet

Sundar Pichai is the CEO of Google and Alphabet and serves on Alphabet’s board of directors. He joined Google in 2004 and helped lead the development of Google Toolbar and Google Chrome, which grew to become the world’s most popular internet browser. In 2014, he was appointed to lead product and engineering for all of Google’s products and platforms, including popular products such as Maps, Play, Android, Chrome, Gmail, and Google Apps (now Google Workspace). Pichai became Google’s CEO in August 2015, joined the board of directors of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, in July, 2017, and became CEO of Alphabet in 2019.

Under his leadership as CEO, Google has been focused on developing products and services powered by the latest advances in AI that offer help in moments big and small. It has invested in new opportunities such as Google Cloud and YouTube and has continued to be a leader in advanced technologies, including machine learning and quantum computing.

Pichai grew up in Chennai, India, and studied engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology where he was awarded an Institute Silver Medal. He holds a master’s degree from Stanford University and an MBA from the Wharton School, where he was named a Siebel Scholar and a Palmer Scholar.