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New York (CNN Business) - More than 20 years after launching Google from a Menlo Park garage, Larry Page and Sergey Brin are giving up executive duties at their parent company Alphabet.
Page and Brin resign as CEO and president, respectively, of Alphabet, the company announced Tuesday. Sundar Pichai, the current CEO of Google and a lifelong executive in the company, will assume the position of chief executive of Alphabet, in addition to his current position.
The co-founders will continue to serve on the Alphabet board of directors. They also maintain voting control over the business, but guaranteeing their ability to influence the direction of Alphabet with or without their executive titles.
“We have never been the ones who maintain managerial roles when we believe there is a better way to run the company. And Alphabet and Google no longer need two CEOs and one president, ”they wrote in a letter.
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The executive deck comes at a time when Google faces increasing scrutiny. Regulators and politicians in the United States and Europe have questioned the size of the company, data privacy practices and the potential impact on society. Page, which was once the face of the company, has largely turned away from public view.
Page has been absent from the company's quarterly earnings calls, and has not remarkably appeared in large technology hearings at the Capitol. In 2018, Page was called before the Senate Intelligence Commission investigating foreign electoral interference, but did not appear. Last year, Bloomberg Businessweek published an article entitled "Where is Larry Page?"
Meanwhile, Page has been investing in new flying car companies.
At the same time, Google faces growing tensions with its own employees. Last week, Google laid off several workers for allegedly violating their data security policies. Some employees quickly accused Google of trying to repress its critics, as well as the attempts of the workers to organize.
Pichai, known for his engineering talents and general sympathy, took over as CEO of Google in 2015 as part of the company's broader corporate restructuring to create Alphabet. Prior to that, Pichai had performed a variety of roles in the company, including the supervision of Chrome, Google's product manager and head of the Android operating system.
As CEO of Google, he has appeared on earnings calls and highlighted important events such as the Google I / O Developer Conference. Under his leadership, Google's business has continued to grow and expand more in hardware and cloud computing, although the vast majority of its revenue still comes from advertising.
Brin and Page said they will remain "actively involved" as board members, shareholders and co-founders. They also said they plan to continue talking with Pichai "regularly."
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