Alphabet Anoints Sundar Pichai in 10-K Filing

Alphabet Inc GOOGL named Google CEO Sundar Pichai one of the people most important to the execution of the company’s vision in a section outlining risks to the company in a 10-K filing. The filing listed Pichai alongside Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and executive chairman Eric Schmidt.

“If we were to lose the services of Larry, Sergey, Eric, Sundar, or other key personnel, we may not be able to execute our business strategy,” the company reported. “All of our executive officers and key employees are at-will employees, and we do not maintain any key-person life insurance policies. The loss of key personnel could seriously harm our business.”

For those who haven’t followed Google’s internal product development, the filing might seem like news, but Pichai has been a core part of Google for over a decade. He’s responsible for pivotal developments that moved Google searching to its current cultural dominance.

His first major project for Google was developing the Google browser toolbar. When Microsoft made Bing the default search engine for Internet Explorer, Pichai boxed them out, according to Business Insider. He convinced hardware manufacturers to install the toolbar directly onto their PCs so that users would have easier access to Google than Microsoft’s own service

He convinced Page and Brin to enter the web browser wars and launch Google Chrome in 2008, against the protests of Schmidt. He later took over the Android division.

Ironically, Silicon Valley buzzed with speculation that Microsoft would look to Pichai to replace Steve Ballmer as CEO in 2013 before the company decided on Satya Nadella.

Gizmodo reported that Pichai devoted several minutes of Google’s last earnings call to virtual reality technology. The Financial Times reported that the company plans to launch a virtual-reality headset within the year.

Alphabet shares were trending up slightly in pre-market trading, potentially indicating that investors reacted favorably to Google’s recognition of its talent.