Eric Schmidt started Innovation Endeavors in 2010 with Dror Berman, Scott Brady and Rick Scanlon, and the firm's own fund announcement describes him as continuing there as a co-founder, non-managing member and anchor investor rather than as an operating partner. He was chief executive officer and chairman of Google from 2001 to 2011, remained chairman of Google until 2015, was executive chairman of Alphabet from 2015 to 2018, and served as technical advisor to Alphabet from 2018 to 2020. Before Google he was chairman and CEO of Novell and spent 14 years at Sun Microsystems, rising to chief technology officer, with earlier technical positions at Xerox PARC, Bell Laboratories and Zilog. He chaired the U.S. Department of Defense Innovation Board from 2016 for four years and chaired the U.S. National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, which issued its final report in 2021; he has been Chair and CEO of Relativity Space since 2025.
Education
B.S. Electrical Engineering, Princeton University
M.S. Computer Science, University of California, Berkeley
Ph.D. Computer Science, University of California, Berkeley
Previous Experience
Chief Executive Officer, Google (2001-2011)
Chairman, Google (until 2015)
Executive Chairman, Alphabet (2015-2018)
Technical Advisor, Alphabet (2018-2020)
Chairman & CEO, Novell
Chief Technology Officer, Sun Microsystems
Technical roles at Xerox PARC, Bell Laboratories and Zilog
Board Seats
Relativity Space
SandboxAQ
Career Timeline
2001
Became chief executive officer of Google, a role he held until 2011.
2010
Started Innovation Endeavors with Dror Berman, Scott Brady and Rick Scanlon.
2015
Became executive chairman of Alphabet, Google's newly formed holding company.
2016
Became chairman of the U.S. Department of Defense Innovation Board, a position he held for four years.
2021
The U.S. National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, which he chaired, released its final report.