Meet Google’s New Leadership Team
New Google CEO Larry Page has formally promoted six executives to senior vice president positions, essentially dividing the company into six distinct product areas. It’s part of an effort to make Google leaner, less bureaucratic and more innovative.
The company’s new senior vice presidents are Alan Eustace, Vic Gundotra, Salar Kamangar, Sundar Pichai, Andy Rubin and Susan Wojcicki. Eustace (previously SVP of engineering and research) is now SVP of search, Gundotra is SVP of social, Kamangar is SVP of YouTube and video, Pichai is SVP of Chrome, Rubin is SVP of mobile and Wojcicki is SVP of ads. They will be given greater control and autonomy over their respective business divisions, according to the LA Times.
The promotions essentially fill the void left by the departure of Jonathan Rosenberg, who will leave his post as SVP of product sometime this summer. Eustace, Gundotra, Kamangar, Pichai, Rubin and Wojcicki join existing SVPs Nikesh Arora (chief business officer), Shona Brown (business operations), David Drummond (corporate development and chief legal officer) and Patrick Pichette (CFO).
Page, who co-founded Google with Sergey Brin in 1998, has been looking for ways to reduce bureaucracy while increasing entrepreneurship and autonomy within the technology titan. While Google is in very good shape by almost any standard, the rise of Facebook and its failure in social has scared it so much that all employee bonuses will be determined by the success of its social media initiatives. Fixing Google’s social strategy is a big reason why Larry Page is now CEO.
It’s also interesting to note that certain people and divisions did not receive promotions. The most prominent omission is Marissa Mayer, Google’s VP of location and local services and the former VP of search products and user experience. Either Page doesn’t believe location merits the same status as search, social, ads, video, Chrome and mobile, or Page didn’t want to make Mayer a SVP.
The leadership shake-up is also be an indication that Page is shifting power away from Google’s powerful Operating Committee, a group within the organization that has traditionally been responsible for its most important decisions. In order to make Google a faster and more entrepreneurial business, he has to decentralize power and the decision making process.
Here are Google’s new SVPs: