After 18 years at Google and Alphabet, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is stepping down

Alphabet announced today that Alphabet board member and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt will not seek re-election once his terms ends June 19, 2019.

Chairman of the Board of Directors John Hennessy had the following to say in regards to Schmidt:

Eric has made an extraordinary contribution to Google and Alphabet as CEO, Chairman, and Board member. We are extremely grateful for his guidance and leadership over many years.

Android Authority reached out to Alphabet regarding Schmidt’s imminent departure, but didn’t hear back by press time.

The news isn’t a complete surprise, seeing how Schmidt stepped down as Executive Chairman on Alphabet’s board of directors in 2017. Schmidt remained on Alphabet’s board, though Alphabet CEO and Google co-founder Larry Page noted at the time that Schmidt would serve as a technical adviser on science and technology issues.

Schmidt is best known for his tenure as Google CEO from 2001 to 2017, Google Executive Chairman from 2011 to 2015, and Alphabet Executive Chairman from 2015 to 2017. Schmidt was also elected to Apple’s board of directors from 2006 to 2009 and famously remained on Apple’s board as Google worked on its iPhone competitor.

Before his time at Google, Schmidt served as Novell CEO from 1997 to 2001 and worked at Sun Microsystems as the company’s first software engineer.

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