Google replaces CEO of cloud unit with former Oracle exec
Google Cloud CEO Diane Greene, who was hired three years ago, will be replaced in January by former Oracle executive Thomas Kurian, the company announced on Friday.
In a blog post, Greene said Kurian will join the company on Nov. 26, 2018 and transition into the role by early next year. Kurian worked at Oracle for more than two decades, and stepped down as the president of product development at the end of September.
“In a few short years, under Diane’s leadership, Cloud has become an incredible business built on Google’s decades of investment in infrastructure, data security, and AI,” CEO Sundar Pichai said in a statement. “Today, those investments are available to everyone and truly changing the way people work.”
Under Greene’s tenure, Google has struggled to make the same wavelengths that competitors Amazon and Microsoft have made in the cloud market. According to Synergy Research Group, Amazon has dominated the industry, controlling more than 30 percent of the cloud infrastructure services market share. It’s followed by Microsoft at 15 percent, while Google trails with less than 10 percent.
Greene will stay on as a board member at Alphabet, Google’s parent company.