Singh Cassidy Departs Google For VC Firm

Sukhinder Singh Cassidy is the latest high profile executive to leave Google, VentureBeat reports, to become a “CEO in residence” for VC firm Accel Partners. Her bio is still on the Google site. She had been serving as President, Asia-Pacific & Latin America Operations. However she was the first head of Local for Google in roughly 2003-2004. I knew her in that capacity.

She “moved up” quickly and was highly respected within Google. Her BD skills and stamina were even regarded with a kind of awe by some Googlers who worked for her.

VentureBeat speculates on her reasons for leaving, suggesting that she may have been disappointed that she didn’t get Tim Armstrong’s job (she had been rumored to be a candidate). She also may have been tired of travel and had been at the company for six years. Regardless, she’s a very talented executive and it’s a loss for Google.

More interesting to me in a way is the fascination with these Google departures. On the one hand the movement of executives is the celebrity gossip of the tech industry. On the other people seem interested in poking holes in the “Google is a special kind of company” notion. But one can see the departures of early execs as part of a “maturation” process as the company completes its transition from wunderkind startup to established global media and advertising company.