Fitting the shoes of his ‘predecessor’ Mark Zuckerberg on this «position», this year Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt is named the Media Person of the Year. For more than 10 years he has helped grow the company from a Silicon Valley start-up to a global leader in technology.

Photo:  Eric Schmidt, Google’s Chief Executive Officer

Eric Schmidt comments on this: “This award reflects the hard work of many people at Google working to develop new technologies to help advertisers thrive in the digital world.”

From 2001-2011, Eric served as Google’s Chief Executive Officer, overseeing the company’s technical and business strategy alongside founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page. Under his leadership, Google dramatically scaled its infrastructure and diversified its product offerings while maintaining a strong culture of innovation.

Prior to joining Google, he was the Chairman and CEO of Novell and Chief Technology Officer at Sun Microsystems, Inc. Previously he served on the research staff at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), Bell Laboratories and Zilog. He holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Princeton University as well as a master’s degree and Ph.D. in computer science from the University of California, Berkeley.

Eric is a member of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and the Prime Minister’s Advisory Council in the U.K. He was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2006 and inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as a fellow in 2007. He also chairs the board of the New America Foundation, and since 2008 has been a trustee of the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey.

He will be honoured during the Press, Cyber and Design Lions awards ceremony on the evening of Wednesday 22 June in the Palais des Festivals, Cannes, France.