How to pronounce google ceo name

Sundar Pichai is a billionaire who has been running Google, a $1.5 trillion company headquartered in Mountain View, California, and its parent company, Alphabet, for the last five years.

On Wednesday, a panel of Democrat and Republican senators questioned Pichai, along with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, about hate speech, election disinformation, and moderating content five days before Election Day in the United States.

The senators made some good points, but there were many errors too. One of them really stood out: Most of the senators mangled Pichai’s last name (which is pronounced "pih-chai").

Pichai, who grew up in Chennai, India, is Indian American; in the languages predominantly spoken in both countries, his last name isn’t a tongue twister. Pea like the vegetable, chai like the drink. Pichai. Yet many senators, whose aides no doubt prepared them carefully, seemed to think they were addressing Mr. “Pick-Eye.”

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Sen. Roger Wicker, the chair of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, was the first to screw it up when he asked Mr. “Pick-Eye” to present his opening remarks. More than an hour into the hearing, Sen. Amy Klobuchar messed it up on the first try — saying “Pee-Chey” — but got it right on her second attempt, becoming the first senator to correctly pronounce his name. It didn’t last, because soon afterward, Sen. Maria Cantwell, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, and Sen. Mike Lee reverted to “Pick-Eye.”

Pichai was the only immigrant and person of color at today's hearing, so it was jarring to hear his name mispronounced when senators were able to correctly say “Zuckerberg” and “Dorsey” (although Sen. Ron Johnson did refer to “Mr. Zuckerman,” he immediately corrected himself, a courtesy that no senators except Klobuchar extended to Pichai).

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Members of Congress have been able to correctly say names that seem much more difficult in the past. In 2011, “Peter Orszag” rolled off Rep. John Spratt’s tongue smoothly. Nobody had a problem saying “Austan Goolsbee” in a hearing last month, or “Eric Shinseki” in 2009; last year, Sen. Lisa Murkowski got “Dan Brouillette” spot on the first time, complete with the silent double L's; and even “Steven Mnuchin” hasn’t been that hard.

The senators have had opportunities to practice. Today was the third time Pichai has testified before Congress; the last time he testified, in July, he was called “Mr. Pick-Eye.” And they have also had reason to say his name in another context: Since 2008, Mr. “Pick-Eye” has donated nearly $93,000 to members of the Senate or their party’s reelection funds.

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In a bizarre incident at the Capitol Hill, a panel of Democrats and Republican senators, who were questioning Google CEO Sundar, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey at the Section 30 hearing, consistently mispronounced Pichai's name.

During the virtual hearing, chairman of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Senator Roger Wicker pronounced his last name as "Pick-Eye" in his opening remarks. Thereafter, Colorado Senator Cory Gardner was the second to mispronounce the Google CEO's name. Senator Amy Klobuchar tried "Pee-Chay" before getting the correct pronunciation on her second attempt.

And then, taking the lead from Chairman Wicker, other senators-Maria Cantwell, Marsha Blackburn, and Mike Lee all reverted to "Pick-Eye".

The senators kept juggling between 'pick-eye' and 'pee-chay.'

Many social media users found this incident disrespectful and even racist.

The three tech moguls were testified in front of the Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday in a hearing that was billed as deliberation over Section 230.

Section 230 of the Communication Decency Act was passed in the US in 1996. Under this law, "interactive computer service" can't be treated as the publisher or speaker of third-party content. This protects websites from lawsuits if a user posts something illegal, although there are exceptions for copyright violations, sex work-related material, and violations of federal criminal law.

Recently, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order that would strip those protections if online platforms engaged in "editorial decisions". The move came after Twitter added a fact-check warning to one of Trump's tweets.

During the hearing, Republicans scolded the companies for censoring conservative voices. Democrats asked the CEOs what they were doing to suppress violent extremism and election interference on their platforms.

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Imagine being able to pronounce ‘Schwarzenegger,’ but fumbling when it comes to ‘Pichai.’

A panel of US Democrat and Republican senators questioned Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, along with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, about hate speech, election disinformation, and moderating content before the US Elections at the Section 230 hearing.

While the senators made some good points, there were errors too. One, in particular, stood out: The mispronunciation of Sundar Pichai’s last name.

Pichai, who hails from Chennai in India, is now one of the top men for one of the most powerful digital platforms in the world, but US senators seemed to have made absolutely no effort to learn how to pronounce his name.

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If you’re Indian, you would already know how it’s pronounced, but if you’re in doubt: It’s ‘Peeh-chaye.’

US Senators, however, called him various variations of the word, “Pick-eye."

Sen. Roger Wicker, the chair of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, was the first to screw it up when he asked Mr. “Pick-Eye" to present his opening remarks, reports Buzzfeed. After an hour into the hearing, Sen. Amy Klobuchar also messed it up on the first try — saying “Pee-Chey" — but got it right on her second attempt, becoming the first senator to correctly pronounce his name.

It didn’t last, however, because soon afterward, Sen. Maria Cantwell, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, and Sen. Mike Lee reverted to “Pick-Eye."

Nobody on the Internet was pleased.

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Pichai was the only immigrant and POC at the Section 230 hearing, and the undertones of mild racism, and not bothering to do the work to pronounce his second name correctly. “Zuckerberg" is equally, if not more, harder to pronounce - but all but one person messed up, and the Senator instantly corrected himself afterwards.

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Pichai didn’t even get a correction, and no Senator certainly bothered to ask him how to pronounce his last name.

Pichai has addressed his Indian heritage and recounted the challenges he faced when he left India for the US to pursue a course at Stanford University 27 years ago, many times.

“My father spent the equivalent of a year’s salary on my plane ticket to the U.S. so I could attend Stanford. It was my first time ever on a plane," Pichai said, adding that when he eventually landed in California, things were not as he had imagined.

“America was expensive. A phone call back home was more than $2 a minute, and a backpack cost the same as my dad’s monthly salary in India," he recounted.

He said that when he first touched down in the state of California, he could hardly see the changes that were coming.

Pichai, who grew up in Chennai and studied engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, holds a master’s degree from the Stanford University and an MBA from the Wharton School.

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first published: October 29, 2020, 12:21 IST

last updated: October 29, 2020, 16:57 IST

It might be assumed that when a billionaire running a $1.5 trillion California-headquartered company — vital to the global economy – testifies on Capitol Hill, senators will pronounced his name correctly.

Sundar Pichai, the Indian American CEO of Alphabet, the parent company of Google, joined fellow chief executives Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Jack Dorsey of Twitter by video chat on Wednesday to discuss hate speech, disinformation, and content moderation, just five days to go before the US election.

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A panel of both Democrat and Republican senators questioned the three tech moguls about  issues of concern regarding their various online platforms — and yet repeatedly mispronounced Mr Pichai’s name. This is his third appearance before Congress.

Born in Chennai, India, Mr Pichai’s name is pronounced “pea” as in the vegetable, and “chai” as in the beverage.

Despite there even being YouTube videos explaining how to pronounce his name, senators apparently struggled with the two syllables, variously referring to him as “Mr Pick-Eye” or “Mr Pee-Chay”.

Chairman of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, Senator Roger Wicker went with “Pick-Eye” in his opening remarks.

Colorado Senator Cory Gardner was the second to mispronounce the name of the CEO.

Senator Amy Klobuchar tried “Pee-Chay” before getting the correct pronunciation on her second attempt.

Unfortunately, after that senators Maria Cantwell, Marsha Blackburn, and Mike Lee all reverted to “Pick-Eye”, perhaps taking the lead from Chairman Wicker.

Given the subject matter of the hearing, social media users were paying close attention and expressed displeasure and disbelief that no one had even thought to check the pronunciation of the name of one of the most important figures in his field.

There were, after all, only three panellists.

A quick google produces several YouTube videos explaining the correct pronunciation.