Google announced today that as part of a shakeup in senior management, Eric Schmidt is stepping down from his role as Chief Executive Officer. Schmidt, who has been in the role for the last 10 years, will be replaced by another of Google"s co-founders, Larry Page. He will also lead product development and technology strategy. The current CEO however isn"t leaving the company and will stay on in an advisory capacity as the Executive Chairman. On the change Mr. Schmidt had the following to say:
We’ve been talking about how best to simplify our management structure and speed up decision making for a long time. By clarifying our individual roles we’ll create clearer responsibility and accountability at the top of the company. In my clear opinion, Larry is ready to lead and I’m excited about working with both him and Sergey for a long time to come.
Google"s other co-founder Sergey Brin has decided as part of this shakeup that he will devote his time and energy toward strategic projects, and more specifically new products.
Mr. Page commented on his promotion to CEO saying:
Eric has clearly done an outstanding job leading Google for the last decade. The results speak for themselves. There is no other CEO in the world that could have kept such headstrong founders so deeply involved and still run the business so brilliantly. Eric is a tremendous leader and I have learned innumerable lessons from him. His advice and efforts will be invaluable to me as I start in this new role. Google still has such incredible opportunity–we are only at the beginning and I can’t wait to get started.
The changeover however will not be immediate, and will instead take place April 4th.