So much for “another decade at Google.”
Bloomberg this evening is reporting that the Obama administration is considering the soon to be departing CEO of Google (GOOG) for Commerce Secretary. The role will be vacated by Gary Locke who is being appointed U.S. Ambassador to China
Pfizer (PFE) Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Kindler and Ron Kirk, the U.S. trade representative, are also said to be in consideration for the role.
“The president will consider a range of qualified candidates, but we are at a very early stage in the process and no decisions have been made,” Jen Psaki, an administration spokeswoman, told Bloomberg
Obama last publicly met with Schmidt at the “Silicon Valley Summit” last month (pictured) and has relied on the Google chief for tech and economic advice even as his own regulators have scrutinized the online-ad behemoth. (See Obama & Google, a Love Story)
In January, Schmidt said that his “next decade at Google will be better than his previous decade,” suggesting that he’ll be sticking around for a while.
His next decade might be shorter than his previous decade as well.
Google gave a cheerful “no comment” when asked about the possibility.
More at Fortune:
- Schmidt’s new role: Google defender/evangelist?
- Adult supervision over: Schmidt yields back to Google co-founder Page
- Google CEO Eric Schmidt to step down