<story><title>Eric Schmidt to become technical advisor to Alphabet</title><url>https://abc.xyz/investor/news/releases/2017/1221.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>bennettfeely</author><text>At the bottom of this thread is a comment by &amp;#x27;AmIFirstToThink&amp;#x27; which has been inexplicably marked &amp;quot;dead&amp;quot;. It seems to be the only reply as of writing this that makes the connection of Schmidt&amp;#x27;s stepping down to his strong bets during the 2016 election.&lt;p&gt;A little-noticed WSJ piece from October would support that idea:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; [Google] Employees donated $1.6 million to her campaign, about 80% more than the amount given by workers at any other corporation, and Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt helped set up companies to analyze political data for the campaign. Mr. Schmidt even wore a badge labeled “STAFF” at Mrs. Clinton’s election-night bash.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; His support of the losing side didn’t go unnoticed among the victors. As President-elect Donald Trump was preparing for a meeting with tech executives at Trump Tower not long before his inauguration, he asked strategist Stephen Bannon whether Mr. Schmidt was “the guy that tried to help Hillary win the election,” according to someone who heard the conversation.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; “Yes,” said Mr. Bannon. “Yes, he is.”&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; Google, one of the most powerful players in Washington in recent years, is now facing the consequences of its lost political clout—and is moving mountains to regain it.&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wsj.com&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;googles-dominance-in-washington-faces-a-reckoning-1509379625&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.wsj.com&amp;#x2F;articles&amp;#x2F;googles-dominance-in-washington...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Eric Schmidt to become technical advisor to Alphabet</title><url>https://abc.xyz/investor/news/releases/2017/1221.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>rajnathani</author><text>&amp;gt; Alphabet expects that its board will appoint a new, non-executive chairman at its next meeting in January, meaning that it will join the ranks of Apple and Microsoft as major companies with non-executive chairman.&lt;p&gt;Could someone provide some context around this topic of executive&amp;#x2F;non-executive chairpersons?&lt;p&gt;Edit: The above quote is taken from the original link which this HN post pointed to - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cnbc.com&amp;#x2F;2017&amp;#x2F;12&amp;#x2F;21&amp;#x2F;eric-schmidt-is-stepping-down-as-the-executive-chairman-of-alphabet.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.cnbc.com&amp;#x2F;2017&amp;#x2F;12&amp;#x2F;21&amp;#x2F;eric-schmidt-is-stepping-dow...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>