Although Omid Kordestani was away from Google for five years, by his telling, he never really left.
The executive, who returned to Google last July, told Re/code’s Kara Swisher that he consulted regularly with CEO Larry Page during his official hiatus. Page anointed him as the chief business officer in the fall. In that role, Kordestani is responsible for steering all the parts of the $60 billion plus ad juggernaut — and signing off on Google’s investments that have yet to pay dividends.
At the Code Conference last month, Kordestani spoke about why he returned to Google, how the core business is adapting to mobile and why the company’s moonshot bets make business sense.
See video of the full interview below:
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
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