“Countries that have the Internet already are not going to turn it off. And so the power of freedom, the power of ideas will spread, and it will change those societies in very dramatic ways.”

American businessman and former computer engineer, born 1955

Eric Schmidt is an American businessman and former computer engineer. Born in 1955, he is best known for leading Google as chief executive officer from 2001 to 2011, then serving as executive chairman until 2015. He later held senior roles at Alphabet, including executive chairman from 2015 to 2017 and technical advisor from 2017 to 2020. Since 2025, he has been chief executive officer of Relativity Space, an aerospace manufacturing company. He is also known as one of the world’s wealthiest people, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.