Eric E. Schmidt

Eric Schmidt began his career in software engineering, co-authoring the Lex software program at Bell Labs in 1975. He subsequently held management positions at Sun Microsystems before becoming the chief executive officer of Novell from 1997 to 2001. In 2001, he was appointed CEO of Google, where he served until 2011 before transitioning to executive chairman of Google and its parent company, Alphabet Inc., a role he held until 2017.

Beyond corporate leadership, Schmidt has held significant advisory roles in the public sector. He served as a member of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and was appointed the inaugural chair of the U.S. National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence in 2018. Since 2021, he has chaired the Special Competitive Studies Project and has influenced national science and artificial intelligence policy.

Schmidt has also contributed to various academic and nonprofit boards, including those of Carnegie Mellon University, Princeton University, and the Mayo Clinic. He founded the philanthropic venture Schmidt Futures in 2017 to support scientific and technological research. In 2025, he returned to operational industry leadership as the chief executive officer of the aerospace manufacturing firm Relativity Space.