Google has found its new chief information officer, CNET News.com has learned: Benjamin Fried, a programmer who rose through the ranks to run much of Morgan Stanley’s computing infrastructure.
Google
Fried, a managing director who led Morgan Stanley’s Application Infrastructure group, will take the new post in May, Google spokesman Matt Furman confirmed Thursday.
According to an internal Morgan Stanley memo seen by News.com, Fried will leave Morgan Stanley at the end of the month “to pursue opportunities outside the firm.”
The memo also indicated that Fried is no stranger to Google. While at Morgan Stanley, one of his projects was working on Google’s initial public offering in 2004, the memo said.
Google’s last CIO, Douglas Merrill, left earlier in April to become president of EMI’s digital unit. Earlier this month, rumors surfaced that Fried would be Google’s new CIO.
Running Google’s computing infrastructure is a daunting challenge on which the company’s success hinges. Google not only has thousands of servers housed in at least 36 data centers scattered around the globe, but also a build-it-yourself culture that means the company is responsible for maintaining much of its own technology.
Fried, who worked for Morgan Stanley computing operations for nearly 14 years, has experience in the area, though. According to the memo, he worked on Morgan Stanley’s first Web site, its workstation software, and its intranet.