• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, May 1, 2019

As former Google CEO Eric Schmidt, 64, leaves the board of directors at parent company Alphabet in June, a long-time financial whiz prepares to step in to take his seat, Alphabet announced Wednesday.

Schmidt, who served as CEO between 2001 and 2011, was brought in to provide guidance to two less experienced founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. Schmidt then took the role of executive chairman and resigned in 2017, but remained on the board. He will now continue as technical advisor. 

Schmidt was instrumental in seeing through some of Google's major tech acquisitions, such as Android and YouTube.

Gilead Sciences CFO Robin Washington will take one empty seat on the Alphabet board.

Washington joined Gilead in 2008 as SVP and CFO, where she oversees the Global Finance and Information Technology business, according to her LinkedIn profile. She was promoted to EVP in 2014.

Earlier, Washington held the position of CFO at Hyperion Solutions, which was acquired by Oracle in March 2007. She also worked at PeopleSoft, founded by Dave Duffield, who later started Workday. She holds or previously held seats on the board at Honeywell and Salesforce.

“I’m honored to join Alphabet’s Board, and I look forward to the opportunity to help guide the company’s important work," Washington stated. "I'm excited to be part of a company that has such a tremendous opportunity to improve the lives of people around the world.”

Diane Greene, who served as a board member since January 2012, is not seeking re-election, and will complete her service in June. She also served as CEO of Google Cloud from December 2015 to January 2019.