Dr. Eric Schmidt is one of the Google Executive Triumvirate, the other two being founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. At present he is the chairman, chief executive officer, chairman of executive committee, chairman of acquisition committee, and chairman of real estate committee of Google, Inc. He also sits as a member of the board of directors of Apple Inc., advisory board of Carnegie Mellon University, and trustee of Menlo School.

After finishing with a degree in Electrical Engineering from Ivy League school Princeton University, he pursued graduate degrees from the University of California-Berkeley. There he accomplished his Masters in Electrical Engineering and Ph.D. in Computer Science. He then joined the research staff of Xerox Palo Alto Research Center’s Computer Science Lab, as well as Bell Laboratories and Zilog, Inc.

In 1983, he joined Sun Microsystems, Inc. and spearheaded the development of Java as part of Sun’s Internet software strategy. Dr. Eric Schmidt held various executive positions in the 14 years he worked for the company. He was vice president of General Systems Group, vice president and general manager of Software Products Division. His stellar career would then continue with him as corporate executive officer and president of Sun Technology Enterprises from 1991-1994. In the following three years, he functioned as Sun’s Chief Technology Officer. In April 1997, Dr. Eric Schmidt went to Novell Inc where he became its chief executive officer and chairman of the board.

In 2001, Brin and Page strategically recruited Eric Schmidt and appointed him chief executive. In a span of seven years, Google experienced exponential development and turned into a company with forecasted sales of $16.2 billion, 18,000 highly innovative and motivated employees, and continued growth despite a global recession.

For the past five years, Eric Schmidt has consistently been in Silicon.com’s Agenda Setters 0f the Year. Placing 6th for 2008, he was recognized for critically positioning Google in new markets and efficiently integrating recent acquisitions into the organization. BusinessWeek recently included him in The 25 Most Influential People on the Web. At 53 years old, he is also the 45th richest American in the world (Forbes) with a net worth of $5.2 billion.