Larry Page and Sergey Brin

Lawrence "Larry" Page and Sergey Brin are American computer scientist and internet entrepreneur. They are best known as the co-founder of Google, one of the most profitable Internet companies. On April 4, 2011, Larry took on the role of chief executive officer of Google. As of 2012, their personal wealth is estimated to be $18.7 billion. Together, Brin and Page own about 16 percent of the company's stake.

The Economist magazine referred to Brin as an "Enlightenment Man", and someone who believes that "knowledge is always good, and certainly always better than ignorance", a philosophy that is summed up by Google’s motto of making the entire world’s information "universally accessible and useful" and "Don't be evil".

During an orientation for new students at Stanford, Brin met Page. Brin's focus was on developing data mining systems while Page's was in extending "the concept of inferring the importance of a research paper from its citations in other papers." Together, the pair authored what is widely considered their seminal contribution, a paper entitled "The Anatomy of a Large-Scale Hypertextual Web Search Engine."

Combining their ideas, they "crammed their dormitory room with cheap computers" and tested their new search engine designs on the web. In 1998, Brin and Page founded Google, Inc. Their project grew quickly enough "to cause problems for Stanford's computing infrastructure." But they realized they had succeeded in creating a superior engine for searching the web and suspended their PhD studies to work more on their system.

On January 12, 2010, Google reported a large cyber attack on its computers and corporate infrastructure that began a month earlier, which included accessing numerous Gmail accounts and the theft of Google's intellectual property. After the attack was determined to have originated in China, the company stated that it would no longer agree to censor its search engine in China and may exit the country altogether.

PC Magazine has praised Google as among the Top 100 Web Sites and Search Engines (1998) and awarded Google the Technical Excellence Award, for Innovation in Web Application Development in 1999. In 2000, Google earned a Webby Award, a People's Voice Award for technical achievement, and in 2001, was awarded Outstanding Search Service, Best Image Search Engine, Best Design, Most Webmaster Friendly Search Engine, and Best Search Feature at the Search Engine Watch Awards."

In 2002, Brin, along with Page, was named to the MIT Technology Review TR100, as one of the top 100 innovators in the world under the age of 35.

In 2004, they received the Marconi Foundation Prize, the "Highest Award in Engineering", and were elected Fellows of the Marconi Foundation at Columbia University. Page was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2004.

In 2004, Brin received the Academy of Achievement's Golden Plate Award with Page at a ceremony in Chicago, Illinois. The same year Page and Brin were named "Persons of the Week" by ABC World News Tonight.

In 2005, Brin and Page were elected Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2002 the World Economic Forum named Page a Global Leader for Tomorrow and in 2004 the X PRIZE chose Page as a trustee for their board.

In November 2009, Forbes magazine decided Brin and Larry Page were the fifth most powerful people in the world.

In 2011, they were ranked 24th on the Forbes list of billionaires and as the 11th richest person in the United States.

Brin is working on other, more personal projects that reach beyond Google. Brin and Page are trying to help solve the world’s energy and climate problems at Google’s philanthropic arm Google.org, which invests in the alternative energy industry to find wider sources of renewable energy. The company acknowledges that its founders want "to solve really big problems using technology”.

In October 2010, they invested in a major offshore wind power development to assist the East coast power grid, which may eventually become the first "offshore wind farm" in the United States. A week earlier they introduced a car that, with "artificial intelligence," can drive itself using video cameras and radar sensors. In the future, drivers of cars with similar sensors would have fewer accidents. These safer vehicles could therefore be built lighter and require less fuel consumption.

They are trying to get companies to create innovative solutions to increasing the world's energy supply. Brin is an investor in Tesla Motors, which has developed the Tesla Roadster, a 244-mile (393 km) range battery electric vehicle.

Brin and Page are also the executive producers of the 2007 film Broken Arrows.

In June 2008, Brin invested $4.5 million in Space Adventures, the Virginia-based space tourism company. His investment served as a deposit for a reservation on one of Space Adventures' flights in 2011.

Brin is a member of AmBAR, a networking organization for Russian-speaking business professionals in the United States. He has made many speaking appearances.