Sundar Pichai joined Google as an executive in 2004. (FILE)
New Delhi:
In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, Google CEO Sundar Pichai had a special message for the promotion of 2020: be open, impatient, hopeful.
Mr. Pichai spoke to students around the world from his “backyard” during the Dear Class of 2020 YouTube virtual ceremony.
In his speech, the CEO of Google recalled his modest roots, stressing the importance of staying positive in the face of difficulties. The 47-year-old spoke of the challenges he faced when he left India to continue his studies at Stanford University in the United States.
“My father spent the equivalent of a year’s salary on my plane ticket to the United States so I could go to Stanford. It was the first time I took a plane … America was expensive. A home phone call cost more than $ 2 a minute, and a backpack costs the same as my father’s monthly salary in India, “he said.
The event, broadcast on YouTube, brought together former US President Barack Obama and former American first lady Michelle Obama, singer and actress Lady Gaga, singer Beyonce and the South Korean group BTS, among others.
Mr. Pichai also made a comparison between how he “grew up with little access to technology” and the children who today have access to “computers of all shapes and sizes.”
“I grew up with little access to technology. We didn’t have our first phone until the age of ten. I didn’t have regular access to a computer until I came to America for graduate school. And, our television, when we finally got one, had only one channel, “said the CEO of Alphabet, Google’s parent company.
Sundar Pichai, who grew up in Chennai, started his career as a materials engineer and joined Google as a senior executive in 2004. He became product manager and CEO of the company in 2015, as part of of the restructuring process that transformed Alphabet Inc into the parent company of Google.
(With PTI entries)
