Eric Schmidt is an American businessman and software engineer. He is famous for being the Executive Chairman of Google from 2001 to 2015 and Alphabet Inc. from 2015 to 2017. In 2017, Forbes ranked Schmidt as the 119th-richest person in the world, with an estimated wealth of US$11.1 billion.
In this article, we are going to look at a list of fascinating facts about Eric Schmidt, that is worth knowing. These facts give an overview of his lifestyle.
1. He Loves Obama
Schmidt was a staunch supporter of Barack Obama. He was to an extent, his campaign advisor and even went as far as donating funds to his campaigns. After Obama became US President, Eric was appointed as a member of his transition advisory board.
2. He Is A Lover Of Art
Not so many people are aware of the fact that he was quite fond of unique art pieces. He even bought some from time to time. 11 years ago, ART news ranked Eric Schmidt in their list of Top 200 art collectors.
3. He Loves Toyota Cars
Eric’s favorite car make is Toyota Prius. A car he drives once in a while despite his love for it. The vehicle in question is unique in the sense that it is a hybrid car.
4. He Loves Flying Planes
He is, in fact, passionate about this. That explains why he owns a Gulfstream V – one of the most exquisite private jets. He is also a certified pilot even though anytime he wants to fly a plane, professional pilots must be there with him. Places he loves to visit include East Coast and Europe.
5. He Supports AI
Unlike some of his colleagues that are against it, Schmidt has nothing against Artificial Intelligence. He believes the machines are there to do the dangerous jobs that humans shy away from. He is also of the opinion that repetitive jobs, that men run away from can be done by AI.
He has vehemently disagreed a couple of times that AI has anything to do with nuclear war threats.
6. He Is Super Rich
As of 2018, he had an estimated net worth of 13.2 billion USD, making him one of the richest men in the US and the world. Most of his money is reported to have come from Alphabet and Google stock options, but the fact that he was CEO at Novell and Chief Tech Officer at Sun Microsystems proves he was not a poor man before he joined Google.
7. He Is A Democrat
Eric Schmidt was reported to have helped Hilary Clinton plan her Presidential campaign in 2016. It was also common knowledge that he funded a Brooklyn-based startup called Groundwork – A tech vendor for the Clinton campaign. He even came to say he was shocked Donald Trump won.
8. He Is A Real Estate Guy
When your bank account is hefty and you love to spend, you tend to do things. Eric uses some of his money and spending skills for Real Estate purposes.
He owns a 15 million dollars Penthouse house in New York City’s Flatiron district. He also holds a 20 million dollars property in Montecito, California.
9. He Is A Ladies Man
Eric Schmidt is a married man. He took his fellow Berkely student, Wendy to the altar in 1980 and they share two daughters together. Whether the rumor of Eric and his wife having an open marriage is true or not, Eric is known for affairs with other women. His list of mistresses includes Kate Bohner, Chan-Giang-Thi-Nguyen and Lisa Shields.
10. He Once Pissed Steve Jobs Off
During one of his dealings with his girlfriends, Kate Bohner to be precise in this case, the former Google CEO gave her his personal iPhone, which was a prototype at the time, this made the late Steve Jobs angry.
11. He Did It All
Eric Schmidt has sat on the Board of Trustees/Directors for companies like Carnegie Mellon University, Princeton University, Apple, Google, and New America Foundation.
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He earned his BSEE in 1976 from Princeton University and his Ph.D. in EECS from the University of California, Berkeley. He worked for Bell Labs, Zilog, PARC, Sun Microsystems, Novelli as CEO and Google as CEO and chairman.
12. He Adores Newspapers
Believe it or not, Eric Schmidt has a soft spot for the old media. At an interview, he said it is an important component of democracy that gives information bloggers can only try to replace. He also mentioned at the time that Google was working on a way to keep Newspapers relevant.
13. He Rejected An Offer From Obama
As i said earlier, Eric is a big fan of the former president. But despite that, he rejected Obama’s offer to be the Chief Technical Officer in his cabinet.
14. He Defined Google
During one of his many interviews, Eric described Google as a Social Phenomenon.
15. He Preached Against Arrogance
While many are of the opinion that competition is the major company-killer, Schmidt had a different stance. He came out to state categorically that it was in fact, arrogance, that kills our companies today, not competition.
16. He Rated Amazon, Facebook, and Apple
As executive chairman of Google, Eric referred Amazon, Facebook, and Apple as the “Gang of Four.”
17. He Revealed Google’s Secret
In one particularly intense interview, Eric disclosed that Google had a facial recognition technology but the company was uncomfortable with how it might be used so it wasn’t released. He said, “As far as I know, its the only technology Google built and stopped.”
18. He Wished Google Created Facebook
Erich Schmidt mentioned in the past that he wished Google had created Facebook. A strange response he gave when he was asked why he and his company did not pursue it was, “I was busy.”
19. He Is A Fan Of Persistence And Curiosity
As an employer that had many dealings with employees, he said the 2 things he looked out for in them were Persistence and Curiosity. He called these two qualities the predictor of future success.
20. He Is Not A Fan Of Privacy
Eric was once asked how he felt about users sharing information with Google as if it were a true friend, his response gave us an idea of what he thought about privacy. He said, “If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place.”
Hope you found this list of fascinating facts about Eric Schmidt, to be very interesting. If you know other fascinating facts about him, feel free to drop them in the comment box below.