Google has successfully got former employee Rick Osterloh back on board to run the its new hardware division. Osterloh's return as senior vice president, after a two-year stint of being the president of Motorala, holds much promise for the former's hardware product line-up.
Osterloh's reputation in the business is next to none, and the fact that he will be heading the new hardware division, as well as overseeing a slew of projects such as the next-gen Nexus, Glass, Chromecast and Project Aura will be welcomed by many.
This will be Osterloh's second stint with Google as he was with Motorola when Google owned the company, prior to its acquisition by Lenovo. He was then the senior vice president of Product Management and the general manager of Premium Products for Motorola Mobility from July 2012 to February 2014.
Osterloh worked his way up the corporate ladder and was promoted to President (post Dennis Woodside's exit from the company) and essayed this role from February to October 2014.
In November 2014, when Google sold Motorola to Lenovo, Osterloh went on to become Motorola Mobility's chief operations officer and president. However, in March, Osterloh bid adieu amid the corporate reorganization of the company.
According to Osterloh's LinkedIn profile, the new Google senior vice president has had a long and fruitful career. His journey began two decades ago in 1995 when he joined Deloitte Consulting as a senior consultant. He was with the company until he moved on to Amazon.com in the capacity of a product manager in 1999. However, this was a brief stint and Osterloh was with the e-retailer for less than a year.
The 44-year-old then shifted to Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in 1999 as a consultant:
"Reviewed business plans and market opportunities in the mobile space. Wrote initial business plan for Good Technology that led to an eventual fundraising round of $60M."
Osterloh quit the Menlo Park company in 2000 and instead joined Sunnyvale-based Good Technology in May of the same year as vice president of Product and Marketing. He was with the company for seven years and was instrumental in heading the marketing and product management for a Kleiner Perkins- and Benchmark-funded start-up, which in his own words "delivered a critically acclaimed Enterprise Mobility solution for over 10,000 enterprises."
In May 2007, the enterprising Osterloh shifted to Motorola's Mobile Division (after the acquisition of Good Technology) as corporate vice president of Android products. He was with the company until June 2010, and during his tenure, managed a team of nearly 800 designers, engineers and product managers in five international markets.
In June 2010, Osterloh moved to London to undertake the responsibilities of vice president of Product Management and Design for Skype.
With a career that is rich in experience and knowledge of product development and marketing, Osterloh will undoubtedly be an asset to Google. He brings to the table expertise in product management - among other skills - which will help fuel the growth of Google's new hardware division.
