Google CEO Sundar Pichai Now The Highest-Paid Executive In U.S.

(RTTNews) - Google chief Sundar Pichai is poised to become the highest-paid chief executive in the U.S. after parent company Alphabet awarded him $199 million in shares.

Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL, GOOG) disclosed in a regulatory filing with the U. S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it awarded 273,328 shares worth $199 million to Pichai on February 3rd.

The award will also make the Indian-American one of the highest-paid executives of a publicly traded company this year.

Pichai, 43, was named the CEO of the search engine giant following a reorganization last year that made Alphabet Inc. into Google's holding company.

The new award of shares takes Pichai's total stock value to approximately $650 million.

Pichai's share award will vest in quarterly increments through 2019 if he remains on the job. In other words, full control over the shares will pass to him on a gradual basis.

Google typically grants equity awards to executives once every two years, a strategy it says encourages executives to take a long-term view of the business.

Born in the southern Indian city of Chennai in 1972, Pichai Sundararajan, better known as Sundar Pichai, joined Google in 2004.

He led the product management team for a suite of Google's client software products, including Google Chrome and Chrome OS, and was largely responsible for Google Drive. He also oversaw the development of Gmail and Google Maps.

Last week, Alphabet surpassed Apple as the world's most valuable firm after it reported a profit of $4.9 billion for the fourth quarter, an increase from $4.7 billion a year ago.