From The Verge: Nest CEO Marwan Fawaz is stepping down as the smart home gadget maker is reshuffled yet again, now operating under the Google division responsible for the company’s Home smart speakers, according to a report from CNET. Just five months ago, Fawaz oversaw Nest’s reintegration under Google; for the last three years, Nest operated as an independent entity under Google parent company Alphabet.
The decision to bring Nest back under the Google umbrella was designed to help hardware chief Rick Osterloh better integrate Nest products with Google’s own hardware and software, much of it increasingly driven by artificial intelligence advances. Now, Fawaz is taking on an advisory role, and Nest will be overseen by Rishi Chandra, the vice president of product management for Google’s home and living room products. CNET reports that many inside the company felt that Fawaz was not an adequate leader of Nest and more of an operations manager, and the change is reportedly a welcome one.
“Marwan led the integration planning efforts and was responsible for determining our organizational strategy, in consultation with me, Rishi and our employees,” Osterloh told CNET in a statement. “We decided together to make these changes so we can better serve our users.”
Google has no plans to retire the Nest brand, and it sounds like Nest’s thermostats, cameras, and home security products will continue their development cycles separate from Google’s Home smart speakers, Pixel smartphones, and Chromecast streaming devices. Still, now that Nest is under Chandra, we may see even deeper integrations between Nest and Google software, like when Google Assistant was added to the Nest Cam IQ earlier this year.
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