Nearly after 10 months of search for the CFO (Chief Financial Officer), Bell Canada’s President of Operations, Patrick Pichette, has been selected as a replacement for George Reyes. The search started last year when George Reyes decided to step down. Reasons for stepping down from Google were not disclosed. The reasons for why the search took so long, are still unknown.
Initially Google said that Reyes would leave by the end of 2007 but due to unavailability of replacement, he continued to work on and will be working until August, 2008. Patrick is expected to join the company on August 1 and will take over as CFO officially by August 12.
According to Google Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Eric Schmidt:
Patrick brings the expertise and track record of a successful CFO, along with the hands-on business experience of a seasoned operations executive.
This strong combination of skills and experience will be an important addition to Google’s executive management team and will support our ongoing efforts to increase value for our users, advertisers and partners
Patrick, who has worked as a partner for McKinsey and Company, already served as a CFO at Canadian telecom company Call-Net Enterprises and Bell Canada (between 2002 till the end of 2003). He joined Bell Canada back in 2001. Currently he serves as a board chairman for Engineers Without Borders (Canada), prior to that he was also a Rhodes Scholar.
He also thanked Reyes for his excellent services and praised the new CFO on joining the company. He said:
On behalf of all my colleagues at Google, we welcome Patrick and, once again, thank George Reyes for all that he’s done for Google.
Patrick Pichette, on his new endeavour, said:
Google is a great company with a phenomenal brand and an outstanding management team.
As an avid user of Google products, I’ve admired the company for many years and am excited about working with my new colleagues in Mountain View and around the world.
