Eric Schmidt served as CEO and Chairman of Google from 2001 to 2011, transforming it from a startup to a global technology leader. He is currently Executive Chairman and CEO of Relativity Space and a prominent voice on AI, business, and philanthropy.

Eric holds a PhD in computer science from UC Berkeley and spent 14 years at Sun Microsystems as Chief Technology Officer before leading Novell as CEO. He also worked at Xerox PARC and Bell Labs early in his career.

Eric co-authored four New York Times bestsellers including How Google Works and The Age of AI. He was awarded an honorary Knight of the British Empire in 2024 for services to philanthropy.

Eric co-founded Schmidt Futures in 2017 and Innovation Endeavors in 2010, investing in over 115 companies including Uber, SoFi, and Anthropic. He founded the Special Competitive Studies Project in 2021 to strengthen America's AI competitiveness.

Under Eric's leadership, Google went public in 2004 raising $1.67 billion and launched Gmail, Google Maps, Google Earth, and acquired YouTube. He oversaw Google's IPO creating 7 billionaires and 900 millionaires from early stockholders.