Urs Holzle

Urs Hölzle is a Swiss computer scientist and technology executive best known for his long-standing leadership at Google. As of 2026, he serves as Senior Vice President of Technical Infrastructure at Google, where he oversees the design, development, and operation of the company’s global computing infrastructure, including its data centers, networking systems, and energy strategy.

Hölzle joined Google in 1999 as one of its earliest employees and was the company’s first Vice President of Engineering. He played a central role in shaping Google’s scalable architecture, helping build the systems that support its search engine and cloud services used by billions worldwide. Over the years, he has been instrumental in advancing energy-efficient computing and has led Google’s efforts in renewable energy adoption, making its data centers among the most efficient in the world.

Before joining Google, Hölzle was a faculty member in computer science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where his research focused on compilers and object-oriented programming. He earned his Ph.D. in computer science from Stanford University.

Known for his deep technical expertise and low-profile leadership style, Hölzle remains one of the key figures behind Google’s infrastructure and sustainability initiatives.