Google's chief financial officer (CFO) will retire by the end of this year, it has been announced.George Reyes has been CFO at the search engine for five years and is now set to end his career at the age of 52.
Google has declined to comment on the reasons for Mr Reyes' departure. However, chairman of the company Eric Schmidt praised his colleague, saying "I've known and admired George since our days together at Sun [Microsystems]" and Google will "miss his thoughtfulness, good humour and wisdom".
He added that "as Google's CFO, George successfully navigated our innovative IPO, the regulatory demands of Sarbanes-Oxley, and the management challenges of scaling a global finance organisation."
Mr Reyes intends to remain in the job until a suitable successor has been found and the transition is anticipated to be complete some time before January.
Commenting on his departure, Mr Reyes expressed his honour at being part of the search engine's management team and described his time with the company as an "extraordinary ride".
He also said that he is confident that Google is being left in safe hands and will continue to build on its achievements.
Google cofounder Larry Page added his praise for his colleague, saying that he has maintained financial discipline within the company while also protecting its "entrepreneurial culture".
Mr Reyes has had a long and distinguished career within several Silicon Valley companies, including ONI Systems and Sun Microsystems.
