Vivek Paul "Vic" Gundotra (born 14 June 1969) is an Indian-born American businessman who served as the Senior Vice President, Social for

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

until 24 April 2014. Prior to joining Google, he was a general manager at

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...

Career

Gundotra joined

in 1991 and eventually became

General Manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

of Platform Evangelism. His duties included promoting Microsoft's

API An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how ...

s and platforms to independent developers and helping to develop a strategy for

Windows Live Windows Live is a discontinued brand name for a set of web services and software products developed by Microsoft as part of its software-as-a-service platform. Chief components under the brand name included web services (all of which were exposed ...

online services to compete with Google's web-based software applications. Gundotra joined

in June 2007, after taking a one-year delay due to a Microsoft employee

non-compete agreement In contract law, a non-compete clause (often NCC), restrictive covenant, or covenant not to compete (CNC), is a clause under which one party (usually an employee) agrees not to enter into or start a similar profession or trade in competition again ...

. His responsibilities as Vice-President of Social included Google's social networking and identity service,

Google+ Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...

. He is widely believed to be the man behind

, and was responsible for the controversial removal of social features from

Google Reader Google Reader was an RSS/Atom feed aggregator operated by Google. It was created in early 2005 by Google engineer Chris Wetherell and launched on October 7, 2005, through Google Labs. Google Reader grew in popularity to support a number of progra ...

. Apart from Google+, he is widely credited for his contributions to early versions of the mobile version of

Google Maps Google Maps is a web mapping platform and consumer application offered by Google. It offers satellite imagery, aerial photography, street maps, 360° interactive panoramic views of streets ( Street View), real-time traffic conditions, and rou ...

, telling stories about guns, making advertising videos for Mercedes, and

Google I/O Google I/O (or simply I/O) is an annual developer conference held by Google in Mountain View, California. "I/O" stands for Input/Output, as well as the slogan "Innovation in the Open". The event's format is similar to Google Developer Day. His ...

. On 24 April 2014, Gundotra announced his resignation from Google after almost 7 years of service. About a year later, accusations were made about his

sexual harassment Sexual harassment is a type of harassment involving the use of explicit or implicit sexual overtones, including the unwelcome and inappropriate promises of rewards in exchange for sexual favors. Sexual harassment includes a range of actions fro ...

of at least one employee at Google. On 11 November 2015, Vic Gundotra announced on his Google+ profile that he was joining AliveCor as its CEO. On 17 January 2019 it was reported that he was stepping down from AliveCor for personal reasons.

Personal life

Gundotra is married to Claudia Gundotra. They have two children, a daughter and a son.

Awards and recognition

In 2003, Gundotra was named in the

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...

Technology Review ''MIT Technology Review'' is a bimonthly magazine wholly owned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and editorially independent of the university. It was founded in 1899 as ''The Technology Review'', and was re-launched without "The" in ...

TR100 The Innovators Under 35 is a peer-reviewed annual award and listicle published by ''MIT Technology Review'' magazine, naming the world's top 35 innovators under the age of 35. at ''Technology Review'' with lists of winners at technologyreview.com ...

as one of the top 100 innovators in the world under the age of 35, for his contribution to Microsoft's

.NET Framework The .NET Framework (pronounced as "''dot net"'') is a proprietary software framework developed by Microsoft that runs primarily on Microsoft Windows. It was the predominant implementation of the Common Language Infrastructure (CLI) until bein ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gundotra, Vic Living people Microsoft employees Google employees 1968 births American people of Indian descent IIT Madras alumni Businesspeople from Mumbai Indian technology chief executives American technology chief executives