Eric Schmidt is an accomplished technologist, entrepreneur and philanthropist. He served as Google's Chief Executive Officer and Chairman from 2001 to 2011, where he pioneered Google's transformation from a Silicon Valley startup to a global leader in technology. Additionally, from 2018 to 2020, Eric served as the Technical Advisor to Alphabet, the holding company of Google, advising its leaders on technology, business and policy issues. He was also the Executive Chairman of Alphabet from 2015 to 2018 and remained as the Chairman of Google until 2015. Prior to joining Google, Eric was the Chairman and CEO of Novell, a software and services company. Previously, he spent 14 years at Sun Microsystems, Inc., starting his career as a manager and rising to become their Chief Technology Officer. He also held technical positions at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), Bell Laboratories and Zilog.
Eric co-founded Schmidt Futures in 2017, which bets early on exceptional people making the world better, applying science and technology thoughtfully and bringing people together across fields. In 2019, he and his wife Wendy announced a new $1 billion philanthropic commitment to identify and support talent across disciplines and around the globe to serve others and help address the world's most pressing issues. As part of this effort, Schmidt Futures, in partnership with the Rhodes Trust, launched its flagship initiative Rise, which aims to increase opportunity for extraordinary young people worldwide and empower them to serve their communities. In 2020, Eric and Schmidt Futures were selected by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo to lead the state's 16-member, blue-ribbon commission to reimagine a stronger and more resilient New York in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in the first-ever mandate for universal, affordable connectivity in the United States.