Shares of Alphabet (GOOGL) were gaining in pre-market trade on Thursday after Bill Maris, CEO and founder of Google Ventures quit effective Friday, Reuters reports.
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GV, previously known as Google Ventures, was founded in 2009 and has invested in more than 300 companies, including Uber Technologies Inc and online retailer Jet.com, according to GV’s website. Although no company is ideal, now we do not see any significant weaknesses which are likely to detract from the generally positive outlook.
He first joined Google 16 years ago as director of global communications and public affairs, where he oversaw the company’s strategic communications programs on a worldwide level.
Tony Fadell, the founder and CEO of home-automation unit Nest, left Alphabet in June. Maris no longer appears on the fund’s executive profiles page. It is speculated that strife between Google Capital and GV might have played a role.
Krane, the managing partner at GV, will replace Maris. Krane was promoted to the position of managing director of GV about two years ago and he is expected to be the permanent CEO of the company.
“Alphabet also recently parted ways with Tony Fadell, the cofounder of Nest Labs (acquired by Google for $3.2 billion in early 2014), and several executives at Google’s self-driving auto unit, including CTO Chris Urmson”. Urmson did not give a clear reason of leaving the organization.
GV’s overall focus on five sectors-life sciences, enterprise, data and artificial intelligence, robotics, and consumer-will remain unchanged under the new chief.
Maris says that he does not have any new career plans as yet.
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Maris is reported to be one of the highest ranking executives to leave in recent times.
