Eric Schmidt and Diane Greene step down from Google board

Google parent company Alphabet said former chairman and chief executive Eric Schmidt and former Google Cloud CEO Diane Greene will step down from the search company’s board in June.
Google India businessRobin Washington, chief financial officer of biotech firm Gilead Sciences, will join the board of Alphabet.

Reuters reported that the changes follow scandals involving Google’s handling of sexual misconduct cases and other situations that have led employees and shareholders to question the board’s oversight.

Eric Schmidt, who was instrumental in Google’s growth for a decade, will remain a technical advisor to Alphabet. He had stepped down as chairman about a year ago.

“After 18 years of board meetings, I’m following coach Bill Campbell’s legacy & helping the next generation of talent to serve,” he said in a series of tweets, referring to a late tech executive who is the subject of “Trillion Dollar Coach,” a new book which Eric Schmidt co-authored.

He said he would continue to serve on government technology advisory boards and teach.

Google hired Oracle veteran Thomas Kurian to lead its cloud computing unit late last year replacing Diane Greene.

Thousands of Google employees in recent months have urged the company to make corporate governance changes after it acknowledged mistakes in its handling of sexual misconduct allegations and other employee grievances, Reuters reported.

Multiple shareholder lawsuits against the board and executives stemming from those cases have also called for changes to the board and company rules.

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