Eric Schmidt and Diane Greene to leave Alphabet's board of directors
Google's parent company is also adding biotech executive Robin L. Washington to its board.
Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt is leaving Alphabet's board.
Google parent company Alphabet said on Tuesday that Eric Schmidt, once the company's CEO and executive chairman, won't seek re-election to the search giant's board of directors.
Diane Greene, who formerly ran Google's cloud division, won't seek to be elected again either. Both executives will leave the board after their current terms expire on June 19. Schmidt will remain a "technical advisor" to Alphabet.
"Eric has made an extraordinary contribution to Google and Alphabet as CEO, chairman, and board member," John Hennessy, Alphabet's board chairman, said in a statement. "We are extremely grateful for his guidance and leadership over many years."
In a tweet, Schmidt said that after he leaves he'll be spending his time "helping the next generation of talent to serve."
After 18 years of board mtgs, I'm following coach Bill Campbell's legacy & helping the next generation of talent to serve. Thanks to Larry, Sergey & all my BOD colleagues! Onward for me as Technical Advisor to coach Alphabet and Google businesses/tech, plus…..
— Eric Schmidt (@ericschmidt) April 30, 2019
Schmidt joined Google in 2001 as CEO. The appointment was seen as the company adding a layer of "adult supervision" for its freewheeling founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Schmidt eventually handed the reins back to Page as CEO in 2011, though Schmidt remained the board's executive chairman. He left that role in January 2018.
Google also said Tuesday that it added Robin L. Washington, a biotech executive, to its board last week. Previously, she was the CFO of Gilead Sciences, a biopharmaceutical company based in Foster City, California.