Google
Patrick Pichette | |
|---|---|
| Born | |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Alma mater | Université du Québec à Montréal, Pembroke College, Oxford |
| Occupation | Investor |
| Years active | Businessperson |
| Employer | iNovia |
| Board member of | Twitter, Lightspeed Retail, Trudeau Foundation |
| Awards | National Order of Québec |
| Website | Inovia.vc |
Patrick Pichette is a Canadian businessperson, and a general partner at the venture capital fund Inovia Capital.[1] He is the chair of the Twitter Board of Directors. He was senior vice president and chief financial officer of Google Inc from 2008 until 2015.[2] He is listed as a director and board member for Lightspeed POS. and the Trudeau Foundation.
Pichette was born and grew up in Montreal.[3]
He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) (1987) and an MA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Pembroke College, Oxford.[2] He received a Rhodes scholarship.
Before joining Google, Pichette worked at McKinsey & Company and Bell Canada from 2001 until 2008.
He was senior vice president and chief financial officer of Google Inc from 2008 until 2015.[2]
In April 2011, it was announced that Pichette would also be taking over human resources responsibilities within Google from vice president Laszlo Bock,[4] and business operations from Shona Brown.[5]
In 2013, Pichette accepted a position on the board of directors for Bombardier, a position he held until 2017.[6][7]
In March 2015, he announced he would retire to travel the world.[8][9] He said he retired to "enjoy a perfectly fine midlife crisis full of bliss and beauty.”[1] He was succeeded as CFO by Ruth Porat.
In April 2018, he announced he would be joining Inovia Capital, a venture capital firm with offices in Montreal, Toronto, San Francisco and London.[3][10][11] After becoming a general partner at Inovia Capital, Pichette is splitting his time between the firm's offices in London,[1] Canada and Silicon Valley.
In 2019, Pichette became a lead founding member of UK's CDL Oxford.[12]
In 2021 Pichette was appointed as a board member of indoor cycling app Zwift.
Pichette was appointed independent Board Chair of Twitter on June 2, 2020;[13] he had been the lead independent director since 2018. He also is Chair of Montreal based Lightspeed POS, and of the Trudeau Foundation. In addition, Pichette is on the advisory board of numerous startups including Hopper, LabGenius, and Arctoris.[14]
In June 2015, he received the National Order of Québec.[15]
Pichette now lives in London, and is married to Tamar Pichette.[3]
He and his wife Tamar are involved in a number of philanthropic projects including a conservation and research project with Nature Conservancy Canada in protecting Kenauk, a 65,000 acre territory between Montreal and Ottawa.[16] They are also active partners in a project with HCP, building an eye hospital in Ethiopia.
