OTTAWA: The Canadian CFO of Google, Patrick Pichette has announced his retirement after seven years.
“You work with giants,” he said of his time at Google. “I work with geniuses; it’s a lesson in humility.”I have a very easy job,” he added. “The first question I ask when ideas come across my desk is ‘Is this going to have at least a billion potential users?’ Two hundred million users isn’t worth our time. Our goal is the planet.”
In an open letter on his Google Plus page, the Montreal native explained his reasons for stepping down from his position at the $158-billion company.
“After nearly 7 years as CFO, I will be retiring from Google to spend more time with my family,” he said.
He recounted a recent trip to Africa with his wife Tamar, where the couple found themselves atop Mt. Kilimanjaro, admiring the view.
“Tamar out of the blue said, ‘Hey why don’t we just keep on going…’ The short answer is simply that I could not find a good argument to tell Tamar we should wait any longer for us to grab our backpacks and hit the road.”
Google expects to find a replacement for Pichette within six months, the company said in a regulatory filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Pichette’s retirement date has not been set and Google said Pichette intends to help find a successor.
