David Drummond, chief legal officer of Google’s parent company Alphabet, is leaving the company after being part of it for around 18 years.
As per Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Friday, David Drummond will be retiring by January 31. The decision comes after Drummond and many other high executives were under scrutiny for months, and Sundar Pichai took charge as CEO of Alphabet in December 2019 from Larry Page.
David Drummond remained a controversial figure in Google and later Alphabet due to multiple relationships with his subordinates.
In August 2019, Drummond came under limelight when Jennifer Blakely posted a blog on his relationship with him criticizing Google’s action of shielding its ‘elite men.’ Blakely was a junior to Drummond, with whom she worked from 2001 to 2008 and has a son. She also claimed he had affairs with other coworkers in the company, which is a violation of his own made rules for the organization.
He, one more time, married a legal department employee named Corinne Dixon in September 2019 breaking company policies on office romance.
Along with another Google exec Andy Rubin, he was one of the biggest reasons which led 20,000 Google employees to protest against the company’s sexual harassment allegations against top executives. The protest began when in October 2018, the New York Times bared how Google protected the ‘father of Android’ after an employee accused him of sexual misconduct.Â
Moreover, a $90 million exit package was handed over to Andry Rubin, but David Drummond will not receive a severance package. The top lawyer has sold $220 million worth of shares in the last year as well.
David Drummond was the first outside counsel of Google when he was approached in 1998. He then joined Google in 2002 and oversaw its IPO and growing it into one of the largest internet companies in the world. His last designation for Google is SVP of Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer. In 2018, he received $47 million in payments, which made him the second-highest paid person in Google.
