A look back: Google’s former CEO Eric Schmidt on Philly tech

Today, Google CEO Eric Schmidt announced that he was leaving the position to take on more responsibilities as Executive Chairman of the company. Co-Founder Larry Page will be taking over as CEO while Co-Founder Sergey Brin will become the company’s president of technology.
As Schmidt wrote in a company blog post this afternoon:

For the last 10 years, we have all been equally involved in making decisions. This triumvirate approach has real benefits in terms of shared wisdom, and we will continue to discuss the big decisions among the three of us. But we have also agreed to clarify our individual roles so there’s clear responsibility and accountability at the top of the company.

In 2009, Schmidt sat down with Technically Philly and a handful of Philly reporters at a press event following Penn’s 253rd commencement. He spoke about his Princeton past, his relationship with Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, and Philly’s technology industry.
And as he put it then, Philly was a great place to support a technology hub:

“To have a tech renaissance, you need universities, which you have here. You need good engineering programs like [Penn and Drexel]. You need a vibrant youth culture and a diverse culture. I think you have all of that criteria here,” he said.
“It’s not a suburban phenomenon. It’s an urban phenomenon. Young people want to live in urban culture.”

Read the rest HERE.