Larry Page is an American computer scientist and Internet entrepreneur who is currently the CEO of Alphabet Inc
Born in Michigan in 1973 to a family of computer scientists, it was fate for Page to become one of the most influential figures in technology today. His father was a computer science professor at Michigan State University and his mother was a computer programming instructor at Michigan State University's Lyman Briggs college, so to no surprise that Page's childhood was immersed in computers, technology magazines, and books. Attracted to computers when he was just 6 years old, he demonstrated that he was "different" by being the first kid in his elementary school to turn in an assignment from a word processor. Page went on to pursue his early-found passions, receiving a degree in computer engineering from University of Michigan, and Master of Science in computer science from Stanford University.
Page displayed his inventive spirit at a young age - while at the University of Michigan, Page reverse-engineered inkjet cartridges and built the electronics and mechanics needed to create an inkjet printer made of Lego bricks when he realized that it was possible to print large posters cheaply with the use of inkjet cartridges. During his computer science PhD program at Stanford University, he focused on the problem of organizing the World Wide Web by studying the relationships and links between web pages. Sergey Brin, the current President of Alphabet, was also a Stanford PhD student at the time, and soon joined Page's research project, nicknamed "BackRub." Together, they authored a research paper titled "The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine," which became one of the most downloaded scientific documents in the history of the Internet at the time. They went on to develop the PageRank algorithm to analyze the backlink data gathered by BackRub's web crawler, eventually becoming the backbone of yet-to-be-found Google's search engine.
Using funds received from faculty members, family and friends, Brin and Page incorporating Google, Inc. in 1998 out of a rented Menlo Park garage, with Page as CEO and Brin as President. Google's initial domain name was "Googol," derived from the number that consists of one followed by one hundred zeros, after the vast amount of data that the search engine was intended to explore. The mission was to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful". By June 2000, Google had already indexed one billion Internet URLs, making it the most comprehensive search engine on the Web at the time.
In 2001, Page stepped down as CEO to assume the President of Products role, as Eric Schmidt, the CEO of Novell at the time, took his place. This came as a result of two of Silicon Valley's most prominent investors, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sequoia Capital, agreeing to invest a combined total of $25 million into Google, suggesting that Page stepping down as CEO so that a more experienced leader could build a world-class management team. After consulting technology CEOs such as Apple's Steve Jobs and Intel's Andrew Grove, he became amenable to the idea. While under Schmidt's leadership, Google underwent a period of major growth and expansion, including the initial public offering on August 20, 2004. Regardless, Page retained control over Google, as Schmidt always consulted Page and Brin on initiatives, and Page continued to give final approval on all new hires. Furthermore, it was Page who provided the signature for the IPO.
In 2011, Page returned to the role of CEO at Google and Schmidt stepped down to the role of executive chairman. As the new CEO, Page focused on developing a greater autonomy for the executives overseeing the most important divisions, and pushed for higher levels of collaboration, communication and unity among the teams. He reorganized the company's senior management, placing a CEO-like manager at the top of Google's most important product divisions, such as YouTube, AdWords, and Google Search. Page continued to restructure the rapidly growing company as its many subsidiaries diverged in function and focus, announcing in 2015 announced Google was to be reorganized under new holding company Alphabet Inc, with himself as CEO and Sundar Pichai to take his place as CEO of Google Inc.
Larry Page is nothing short of a miracle-maker with world-changing visions and the courage to take on visionary initiatives. He is currently chasing his moonshot aspirations through Alphabet, spreading internet through its Project Loon balloons, and building smarter home appliances. With his visionary outlook on the future, he will continue to be a leader of innovation in the ever-evolving landscape of technology.
