Eric Schmidt
Eric Emerson Schmidt (born April 27, 1955) is an American businessman and former software engineer who served as the CEO of Google from 2001 to 2011, and as the company's executive chairman from 2011 to 2015.[1] He also served as the executive chairman of parent company Alphabet Inc.[2][3][4] from 2015 to 2017,[1] and Technical Advisor at Alphabet from 2017 to 2020.[5] In April 2022, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimated his net worth to be US$25.1 billion.[6]
For other people with similar names, see Eric Schmidt (disambiguation).
Eric Schmidt
Businessman
1983–present
- Co-founder
- Schmidt Futures
- Chairman
- Special Competitive Studies Project
- Limited partner
- Washington Commanders (NFL)
2[a]
As an intern at Bell Labs, Schmidt in 1975 was co-author of Lex,[7][8][9] a software program to generate lexical analysers for the Unix computer operating system. From 1997 to 2001, he was chief executive officer (CEO) of Novell.[10] Schmidt has served on various other boards in academia and industry, including the boards of trustees for Carnegie Mellon University,[11] Apple,[12] Princeton University,[13] and the Mayo Clinic.[14] He also owns a minority stake in the Washington Commanders of the National Football League (NFL).
In 2008, during his tenure as Google's chairman, Schmidt campaigned for Barack Obama,[15] and subsequently became a member of Obama's President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.[16] In the meantime, Schmidt had left Google, and founded philanthropic venture Schmidt Futures, in 2017. Under his tenure, Schmidt Futures provided the compensation for two science-office employees in the Office of Science and Technology Policy.[17] In October 2021, Schmidt founded the Special Competitive Studies Project (SCSP) and has since served as its chairman.[18]
Early life[edit]
Schmidt was born in Falls Church, Virginia, later moving to Blacksburg, Virginia.[4][19] He is one of three sons of Eleanor, who had a master's degree in psychology, and Wilson Emerson Schmidt, a professor of international economics at Virginia Tech and Johns Hopkins University, who worked at the U.S. Treasury Department during the Nixon Administration.[4][19] Schmidt spent part of his childhood in Italy as a result of his father's work and has stated that it had changed his outlook.[20]
Schmidt graduated from Yorktown High School in the Yorktown neighborhood of Arlington County, Virginia, in 1972, after earning eight varsity letter awards in long-distance running.[21][22] He attended Princeton University, starting as an architecture major and switching to electrical engineering, earning a Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree in 1976.[23][24]
From 1976 to 1980, Schmidt resided at the International House Berkeley, where he met his future wife, Wendy Boyle. In 1979, at the University of California, Berkeley, Schmidt earned an M.S. degree for designing and implementing a network (Berknet) linking the campus computer center with the CS and EECS departments.[25] There, he also earned a PhD degree in 1982 in EECS, with a dissertation about the problems of managing distributed software development and tools for solving these problems.[26]
Career[edit]
Early career[edit]
Early in his career, Schmidt held a series of technical positions with IT companies including Byzromotti Design, Bell Labs (in research and development),[19] Zilog, and Palo Alto Research Center (PARC).
During his summers at Bell Labs, he and Mike Lesk wrote Lex,[23][7] a program used in compiler construction that generates lexical-analyzers from regular-expression descriptions.
Sun Microsystems[edit]
In 1983, Schmidt joined Sun Microsystems as its first software manager.[19] He rose to become director of software engineering, vice president and general manager of the software products division, vice president of the general systems group, and president of Sun Technology Enterprises.[27]
During his time at Sun, he was the target of two notable April Fool's Day pranks.[28][29][30] In the first, his office was taken apart and rebuilt on a platform in the middle of a pond, complete with a working phone and workstation on the corporate Ethernet network. The next year, a working Volkswagen Beetle was taken apart and re-assembled in his office.
Novell[edit]
In April 1997, Schmidt became the CEO and chairman of the board of Novell. He presided over a period of decline at Novell where its IPX protocol was being replaced by open TCP/IP products, while at the same time Microsoft was shipping free TCP/IP stacks in Windows 95, making Novell much less profitable. In 2001, he departed after the acquisition of Cambridge Technology Partners.[10]
Philanthropy[edit]
Schmidt Family Foundation[edit]
The Schmidt Family Foundation was established in 2006 by Wendy Schmidt and Eric Schmidt to address issues of sustainability and the responsible use of natural resources.[88]
Schmidt and his wife established the Eric & Wendy Schmidt Data Science for Social Good Fellowship, a University of Chicago summer school program for aspiring data scientists.
The Schmidt Family Foundation's subsidiaries include ReMain Nantucket and the Marine Science and Technology Foundation; its main charitable program is the 11th Hour Project. The foundation has also awarded grants to the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Energy Foundation.[89]
The foundation is the main funder of the Schmidt Ocean Institute, which supports oceanographic research by operating RV Falkor.[90]
The Schmidts, working with Hart Howerton, a San Francisco architectural firm that specializes in large-scale land use, have inaugurated several projects on the island of Nantucket that seek to sustain the unique character of the island and to minimize the impact of seasonal visitation on the island's core community.
Mrs. Schmidt offered the prize purse of the Wendy Schmidt Oil Cleanup X CHALLENGE, a challenge award for the efficient capturing of crude oil from seawater motivated by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.[91]
The foundation also donated $10 million to the Monterey Bay Aquarium in 2015.[92]
In 2022, the Schmidts gave $12.6 million to their alma mater, Berkeley, to establish the Schmidt Center for Data Science and the Environment. They have also been contributors to Berkeley's International House and its Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing.[93]
Schmidt Transformative Technology Fund[edit]
In 2009, Eric and Wendy Schmidt endowed the Schmidt Transformative Technology Fund at Princeton University with $25 million. The Fund's purpose is to support research and technology in the natural sciences and engineering, encouraging collaboration across disciplines.[94][95][96][97] It awarded $1.2 million in grants in 2010 and $1.7 million in grants in 2012.[98][99]
Schmidt Science Fellows[edit]
Created in partnership with the Rhodes Trust, the Schmidt Science Fellows program is part of a $100 million commitment to drive scientific leadership and interdisciplinary research.[100] The program features a Global Meeting Series including exclusive sessions at world-leading institutions including Oxford, Cambridge, MIT, and Harvard. Fellows receive a stipend to participate in postdoctoral study which differs from their existing expertise.
Rise[edit]
An initiative of Schmidt Futures and the Rhodes Trust, which aims to increase the opportunity for exceptional young people worldwide to serve others throughout their lives. The program, which will find and elevate young people between the ages of 15 and 17 from around the world, will be designed to encourage a lifetime of service and learning by providing support that could include scholarships, career services, and funding opportunities[101]
Public positions[edit]
Tax avoidance[edit]
Schmidt has claimed that Google's use of artificial distinctions to avoid paying billions of pounds in corporation tax otherwise owed by its UK operations[102] is "capitalism"[103] and that he was "very proud of it".[104]
Privacy[edit]
Publicly Schmidt stated that, as paraphrased by CNN/Money, "there has to be a trade-off between privacy concerns and functionality."[105] His explanations referenced "Don't Be Evil".[105]
During an interview aired on December 3, 2009, on the CNBC documentary "Inside the Mind of Google," Schmidt was asked, "People are treating Google like their most trusted friend. Should they be?" He replied: "I think judgment matters. If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place. But if you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines, including Google, do retain this information for some time. And it's important, for example, that we are all subject in the United States to the Patriot Act. It is possible that information could be made available to the authorities."[106][107]
At the Techonomy conference on August 4, 2010, Schmidt expressed that technology is good. And he said that the only way to manage the challenges is "much greater transparency and no anonymity." Schmidt also stated that in an era of asymmetric threats, "true anonymity is too dangerous."[108] However, at the 2013 Hay Festival, Schmidt expressed concern that sharing of personal information was too rampant and could have a negative effect, particularly on teenagers, stating that "we have never had a generation with a full photographic, digital record of what they did", declaring that "We have a point at which we [Google] forget information we know about you because it is the right thing to do. There are situations in life that it's better that they don't exist."[109]
In 2013, Schmidt stated that the government surveillance in the United States was the "nature of our society" and that he was not going to "pass judgment on that".[110] However, on the revelation that the NSA has been secretly spying on Google's data centers worldwide, he called the practice "outrageous" and criticized the NSA's collection of Americans phone records.[111]
Other work[edit]
Bilderberg Group[edit]
He is a member of the Bilderberg Group and attends the annual Bilderberg conferences regularly.[142][143][144][145] He also has a listed membership with the Trilateral Commission.[146]
Berggruen Institute[edit]
Schmidt is an active member of the Berggruen Institute's 21st Century Council, and its board of directors.[147][148]
Acting[edit]
In 2014, he had a cameo appearance in the film Dumb and Dumber To, starring Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels. He also had a cameo appearance in the HBO show Silicon Valley.[149]
Personal life[edit]
In June 1980, Schmidt married Wendy Susan Boyle (born 1955 in Short Hills, New Jersey). They lived in Atherton, California, in the 1990s.[150] They have a daughter, Sophie,[19][151] and had another, Alison, who died in 2017 from an illness.[152] A number of Schmidt's extramarital relationships have attracted publicity, but he and his wife continue joint philanthropic efforts.[153][154][155]
In January 2013, Schmidt visited North Korea with his daughter Sophie,[156] Jared Cohen, and former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson.[157][158]
In 2015, Schmidt acquired a 20% stake in D.E. Shaw & Co.[159] Schmidt is also an investor in CargoMetrics, another quant hedge fund.[160]
In April 2015, Schmidt delivered the commencement address at Virginia Tech, located in Schmidt's childhood home of Blacksburg, Virginia.[161] This came on the heels of Schmidt making a $2 million donation to Virginia Tech's College of Engineering. Schmidt's philanthropy is the result of his longstanding friendship with Virginia Tech's former president Paul Torgersen. His donation funded the Paul and Dorothea Torgersen Dean's Chair in Engineering.[162]
In September 2020, Schmidt purchased Montecito Mansion, a 22,000-square-foot estate overlooking Santa Barbara, for $30.8 million.[163]
In November 2020, Recode reported that Schmidt is finalizing his plan to become a citizen of Cyprus. He is one of the highest-profile people to take advantage of the immigrant investor programs that offers a "passport-for-sale". This passport can be used to enter and live in any country of the European Union.[164]
In 2023, Forbes Israel estimated Schmidt's net worth was $17.2 billion.[165]