Tech

Google's First 21 Employees: Where Are They Now?

By Alyson Shontell
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heather cairns google investor employee
Heather Cairns was one of the original Googlers  Heathercairns.com

If you don't count Larry Page or Sergey Brin, only seven early Googlers still work for the search giant that made them rich. 

Some early Google employees have become entrepreneurs. Others are angel investors. A few are happily retired.

A Quora user compiled a list of all the original Googlers and where they are now.

In light of Google's 15th birthday (which is today), we did some additional digging to find out which roles they had, when they joined, and more.

21. Marissa Mayer joined Google as a software engineer. Now she is the CEO of Yahoo.

Marissa Mayer

Employed by Google from: June 1999 - July 2012

Most recent position at Google: VP, Local, Maps & Location Services

Current Company/Position: CEO, Yahoo

20. Kendra DiGirolamo joined Google as an Ad Sales Coordinator and left three years before the IPO. Now she's at Driscoll's

Kendra DiGirolamo
Google +

Employed by Google from: June 1999 - May 2001

Most recent position at Google: Advertising Sales Coordinator

Current Company/Position: Business Analyst, Driscoll's

19. Larry Schwimmer was an early software engineer at Google. He introduced Snippets, a productivity system, to Google to help it manage employees during the explosive growth period.

Larry Schwimmer
Google +

Employed by Google from: 1999 - n/a

Most recent position at Google: software engineer

Current Company/Position: n/a

18. Jim Reese was a former engineer at Google. He was once knocked out by a 200-pound metal beam in Google's leased data center.

Jim Reese
Flickr

Employed by Google from: 1999 - n/a

Most recent position at Google: Chief Operations Engineer

Current Company/Position: n/a

17. Gerald Aigner was brought in to manage Google's supply costs. Now, he's in London being an "Internet professional."

early google employees
Ledblook.edublogs

Employed by Google from: 1999 - 2006

Most recent position at Google: Aigner was a member of Google's senior staff, according to his LinkedIn page. Specifically, he's listed as someone who was in charge of teh data center and Internet/leased line negotiations, hardware design and purchasing, hardware and network monitoring, and performance optimizations.

Current Company/Position: Aigner now lists himself as an "Independent Internet Professional" based in London on his LinkedIn profile.

16. Susan Wojcicki is still at Google. She's SVP of Product.

Susan Wojcicki

Employed by Google from: April 1999 - Present

Current position at Google: SVP of Product

15. Joan Braddi ran Search Services for Google. Now she is Google's VP of Partnerships.

Joan Braddi
Google +

Employed by Google from: 1999 - present

Current position at Google: Braddi was VP of Search Services at Google; now she is VP of Partnerships.

14. Chris Skarakis led Google's business development until May 2005. Now he is the founder of Blip.fm and he's on the board of Kanye West's Foundation.

Chris Skarakis
twitter

Employed by Google from: May 1999 - May 2005

Most recent position at Google: Director of Business Development

Current Company/Position: Skarakis is currently the founder of Blip.fm. He's also on the board of directors for Kanye West Foundation, Friends of Palo Alto Junior Museum and Zoon and Little Kids Rock.

13. Rachael Chambers left her job at Netscape to join Google as an executive assistant in May 1999.

rachael chambers

Employed by Google from: May 1999 - October 2000

Most recent position at Google: Hired as an executive assistant; left as an ad sales coordinator.

Current Company/Position: Program manager, Cisco.

12. Steve Schimmel also did business development for Google. Now he is "temporarily retired" and angel investing.

Steve Schimmel google employee
Steve Schimmel, an early Google employee, is now an angel investor. Steve Schimmel

Employed by Google from: 1999 - 2004

Most recent position at Google: Business Development

Current Company/Position: Angel Investor, "Temporarily retired" entrepreneur/dad. His startup investments include BackOps, Crowdrise, Roozt and Guide.

11. Omid Kordestani is still at Google; he's a senior advisor to Larry Page and Sergey Brin.

Omid Kordestani
wikipedia

Employed by Google from: January 1999 - Present

Current position at Google: Senior Advisor, Office of the CEO and Founders. He's been named on the Forbes Billionaires list.

10. Salar Kamangar is still at Google too. He's Senior VP of YouTube and Video.

salar kamangar
http://ashleyannphotography.com

Employed by Google from: 1999 - Present

Current position at Google: CEO of YouTube and Senior VP of Video.

9. Georges Harik joined Google as a software engineer. Now he's an angel investor and the founder of a startup, imo.im.

Georges Harik
Crunchbase

Employed by Google from: 1999 - 2005

Most recent position at Google: Software engineer then Product Management Director

Current Company/Position: Founder of imo.im; co-founder of hslabs, angel investor

8. Urs Hölzle remains at Google. He's Senior Vice President for Technical Infrastructure.

Google IO Urs Holzle
Urs Hölzle wowed Google I/O attendees with Google's new cloud Business Insider

Employed by Google from: 1999 - Present

Current position at Google: Senior Vice President for Technical Infrastructure

7. Amit Patel is now a member of Sunfire. He and Paul Buchheit came up with Google's slogan, "Don't Be Evil"

sunfire
Sunfire's office assembly Twitter/@niniane

Employed by Google from: 1999 - n/a

Most recent position at Google: n/a

Current Company/Position: Sunfire

6. Harry Cheung was an original Google engineer. Now he's an angel investor in startups like Qwiki and Badgeville.

Harry Cheung
Angellist

Employed by Google from: 1999 - n/a

Most recent position at Google: Engineer

Current Company/Position: Angel investor; portfolio companies include Qwiki, Badgeville and PrePay

5. Ray Sidney was a software engineer at Google who left 13 months before the IPO.

ray sidney
Google/Picasa

Employed by Google from: 1999 - 2003

Most recent position at Google: n/a

Current Company/Position: Big George Ventures; sustainable real estate developer

4. Heather Cairns was an HR manager at Google. Now she's happily retired and dabbling in angel investing.

heather cairns
Google +

Employed by Google from: 1998 - 2004

Most recent position at Google: HR Manager

Current Company/Position: Angel Investor. Her LinkedIn profile used to say "bum" at company, "beach."

3. Craig Silverstein was Larry and Segey's first hire. He left in 2012 to join a startup, Khan Academy

craig silverstein khan academy google
Google

Employed by Google from: 1998 - 2004

Most recent position at Google: HR Manager

Current Company/Position: Developer at Khan Academy

2. Sergey Brin is a co-founder of Google

sergey brin
Screenshot

Employed by Google from: 1998 - Present

Current position at Google: Co-founder of Google

1. Larry Page is the CEO and co-founder of Google

larry page
Screenshot

Employed by Google from: 1998 - Present

Current position at Google: CEO and co-founder of Google

What about the first people at Microsoft?

Microsoft 1978
Microsoft

WHERE ARE THEY NOW? What Happened To The People In Microsoft's Iconic 1978 Company Photo

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Alyson Shontell Business Insider
Alyson Shontell
Alyson is the Editor-in-Chief and CCO at Fortune.  She was previously a co Editor-in-Chief overseeing Business Insider's tech and business coverage.She joined Business Insider in July 2008 as the company's sixth employee. She started as a sales planner before joining the editorial team in 2010, where she became a startup reporter and was first to cover some of today's largest tech companies, including Pinterest, Tinder, Instagram, Uber and Snap. Alyson rose to become a senior correspondent, then Executive Editor.She was appointed Editor-in-Chief of Business Insider in 2016, at which point she became the youngest and only woman to run a global business publication. Under her leadership, the business division has grown to hundreds of  millions of monthly readers.Alyson was a host of  Insider's conferences and launched a podcast, "Success! How I Did It," where she interviewed influencers ranging from Sheryl Sandberg to Steve Ballmer about their career paths (subscribe on iTunes here).She has appeared on ABC, Good Morning America, Al Jazeera, MSNBC, CNBC, CNN, and CBC, and she has interviewed media personalities such as Megyn Kelly, technology leaders like Fred Wilson, political leaders like John Brennan, and sports star LeBron James. She is a judge for the prestigious Gerald Loeb Awards in business journalism, and has been named one of Min's Rising Stars in Media, as well as Folio's 2017 Top Women in Media.She graduated from Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications, where she majored in psychology and advertising.You can read some of her investigative articles here:— Leaked videos reveal the true founding story of Snapchat— The founder who dumped Jared Kushner: Inside the phone call that left the White House star in a fit of rage— The downfall of billion-dollar startup, Fab— How a startup that raised the largest seed round in Silicon Valley history blew itself up before it even launched— The dark side of Facebook, where people lie, cheat, and make millions— A profile of Uber's controversial CEO, Travis Kalanick— The mystery of Jody Sherman, a founder who was driven to suicide and left behind a shocking business disasterDisclosure: Alyson owns bitcoin and Snap. She is also an investor in The Spun, a sports-media startup founded by her husband.
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