Google CEO Sundar Pichai is joining Alphabet's board of directors

Google CEO Sundar Pichai has joined parent company Alphabet's board of directors, according to an announcement by Alphabet. Pichai becomes the 13th member of the Alphabet board that includes co-founder Sergey Brin, former CEO Eric Schmidt, Kleiner Perkins' John Doerr and Google SVP Diane Greene.

“Sundar has been doing a great job as Google’s CEO, driving strong growth, partnerships, and tremendous product innovation. I really enjoy working with him and I’m excited that he is joining the Alphabet board,” said Larry Page, CEO of Alphabet, in a statement.

Pichai joined Google in 2004 and helped lead the development of key consumer products which are now used by over a billion people. In 2014, he took over product, engineering, and research efforts for all of Google’s products and platforms.

Pichai has been running the Google division since August 2015, when the company decided to separate its different businesses and name the parent company Alphabet and since that time, Google’s stock has increased from roughly $650 to $995 in value.

The move also resolves a potentially awkward situation: As CEO, Pichai was responsible for the Google Cloud business run by Diane Greene, but Greene also had oversight of Pichai as an Alphabet board member.