От металлурга до CEO Google: как образовательный путь Сундара Пичая привел к вершине

Sundar Pichai’s rise to the top of Google is reduced to one familiar line: IIT Kharagpur to Google CEO. But his education journey is more interesting than that. It began in Chennai schools, moved through one of India’s premier engineering institutes, and then took him to Stanford and Wharton. Each stage added something different to his academic path. The Chennai school years that came first Pichai was born in 1972 and grew up in Chennai. His formal schooling included Jawahar Vidyalaya Senior Secondary School in Ashok Nagar, where he studied up to Class X. He then moved to Vana Vani Matriculation Higher Secondary School, located on the IIT Madras campus, for his higher secondary education. Accounts from his school years describe him as quiet, studious and particularly interested in mathematics and science. One former teacher at Jawahar Vidyalaya has recalled him as focused and humble. That detail matters because the future CEO was not known as a flashy student seeking attention. His early reputation was built around being serious about his studies. IIT Kharagpur changed the direction After school, Pichai entered the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur. He studied metallurgical engineering and earned a Bachelor of Technology degree in 1993. Stanford later noted that he also received an Institute Silver Medal at IIT Kharagpur. There is an interesting twist here. Pichai did not study computer science, the field most people might associate with a future Google chief. His undergraduate training was in metallurgy, yet his career gradually moved towards technology and product development. When he returned to IIT Kharagpur in 2017, Pichai also spoke candidly about student life. He recalled bunking classes and argued that education should encourage students to take risks rather than simply follow set rules. Stanford took him deeper into technology After IIT, Pichai moved to the United States and studied at Stanford University. He earned a Master of Science degree in materials science and engineering in 1995. This was an important academic bridge. His IIT education had given him an engineering foundation, while Stanford exposed him to a wider research and technology environment. Decades later, he returned to Stanford not as a student but as the university’s 2026 commencement speaker. Wharton added the business side Pichai’s education did not stop with engineering and materials science. He later earned an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. His performance there brought two notable academic honours. He was named a Siebel Scholar and a Palmer Scholar. That combination of engineering, advanced science and management became an important part of his professional profile. His education was no longer confined to one discipline. It connected technology with business decisions and leadership. From degrees to Google CEO Pichai joined Google in 2004 and worked on products including Google Toolbar and Chrome before taking on increasingly senior product and leadership roles. Google appointed him CEO in October 2015. He later became CEO of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, in December 2019. His academic journey, therefore, was not a simple ladder from one prestigious institution to another. It moved across subjects and countries. That makes one of Pichai’s recent observations particularly fitting. Speaking at Stanford’s 2026 commencement, he told graduates that “the important thing isn’t to get them all right; it’s to find a way to keep moving forward.”