WASHINGTON: Chennai-born Sundar Pichai was APPOINTED CEO of Google on Tuesday by the company’s founders Larry Page and Sergei Brin in process of creating a holding company called Alphabet.

Born in Chennai, the 43-year-old IIT graduate and a father of two,Pichai has contributed to many products of Google, including Chrome browser and Android mobile software.

“I feel very fortunate to have someone as talented as he is to run the slightly slimmed down Google and this frees up time for me to continue to scale our aspirations,” Page wrote in a blog post.

“I have been spending quite a bit of time with Sundar, helping him and the company in any way I can, and I will of course continue to do that,” he wrote further.

As the CEO of Google, Pichai will oversee some of the important products of the company, including its search engine, ads, maps, apps, YouTube and the Android system.

Pichai’s life and career 

Pichai was born in the capital city of Tamil Nadu, Chennai, in 1972. He did his bachelors in metallurgical engineering from IIT-Kharagpur. He went on to pursue his M.Sc from Stanford University and later completed his MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was awarded the titles of Siebel Scholar and Palmer Scholar.

Pichai started his career as an engineer working for manufacturer Applied Materials, after which he joined McKinsey & Company where he worked in management consulting.

Pichai, who is reportedly soft-spoken, joined Google Inc in 2004. He oversaw product management and later, led the team working on the development of apps such as Gmail and Google Maps.

He headed the team that worked on the Chrome browser, which was launched in 2008, and also worked on several search products, including Google Toolbar, Desktop Search, Gadgets and Google Gears. He also oversaw the development of Computer Operating System.

Previously, Pichai served as the Senior Vice President of Android, Chrome & Apps at Google Inc. He was also the Member of Board of Advisors at Ruba. He also served as a Director of Jive Software Inc. from March 2011 to 30 July, 2013, according to Bloomberg.

Pichai is married to Anjali Pichai and has a daughter and a son.