Biography | Eric Schmidt — Appointed CEO of Google in August 2001

In March 2001 Eric Schmidt joined Google as chairman of the board. Five months later, in August 2001, he became the company’s chief executive officer. Larry Page moved to the role of president of products. Sergey Brin became president of technology. Schmidt had come from Novell, where he had been CEO, and before that from Sun Microsystems as chief technology officer. Google was still a private company with a few hundred employees. The founders were in their late twenties. Schmidt, then 46, brought the operational experience the board and the founders sought. The change was announced from Mountain View, California, where Google’s offices were then located. Under his tenure the company prepared for its 2004 initial public offering and grew into a global technology firm. He remained CEO until 2011 and later served as executive chairman of Google and then Alphabet. The appointment marked the moment the two founders stepped back from day-to-day CEO duties and a professional manager took the formal helm. Photo: U.S. Department of Defense (CC BY 2.0), via Wikimedia Commons