Sundar Pichai Becomes Highest-Paid Chief Executive in US

Google CEO Sundar Pichai has become the highest-paid chief executive in the US after being awarded $199 million in shares, a US Securities and Exchange Commission filing has revealed.

Sundar Pichai became Google’s chief executive following the creation of its parent, Alphabet.

Google’s founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, have amassed fortunes of $34.6 billion and $33.9 billion, according to Forbes magazine.

Sundar Pichai, 43, was awarded 273,328 Alphabet shares on February 3, worth a total of $199 million, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

The new award of shares takes Sundar Pichai’s total stock value to approximately $650 million.

Sundar Pichai’s share award will vest incrementally each quarter until 2019. In other words, full control over the shares will pass to him on a gradual basis.

He joined the company since 2004, initially leading product management on a number of Google’s client software products, including Google Chrome and Chrome OS, as well as being largely responsible for Google Drive. He also oversaw the development of Gmail and Google Maps.

Sundar Pichai previously worked in engineering and product management at Applied Materials and as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company.

Last week, Alphabet – Google’s parent company – surpassed Apple as the world’s most valuable firm after it reported a profit of $4.9 billion in Q4 of 2015, an increase from $4.7 billion a year ago.

On an annual basis, Alphabet made $16.3 billion, but the figures showed that the “Other Bets” business lost $3.6 billion during the period, while Google’s operating income rose to $23.4 billion, as online advertising increased.