Taking Fadell’s place as CEO will be former executive VP of Motorola Mobility, Marwan Fawaz, who, according to Nest, has “extensive technology and engineering knowledge,” as well as a background in connected home platforms. Additionally, the company says it’s already positioned itself with a two-year product roadmap to be sure the transition is not only smooth but that the company continues to head in the right direction.
“While there is never a perfect time to transition, we’ve grown Nest to much more than a thermostat company,” Fadell wrote on the Nest blog. “We’ve created a hardware + software + services ecosystem, which is still in the early growth stage and will continue to evolve to move further into the mainstream over the coming years. The future of Nest is equally as bright given the strong and experienced leadership team in place.”
For the better part of the last year, Nest has worked towards phasing Fadell out of the company’s CEO position and into his upcoming advisory role with Alphabet. Concerning his move to Alphabet, Fadell says that while he won’t be present during the “day to day at Nest,” his role with Google’s parent company allows him to “pursue new opportunities to create and disrupt other industries.”
What he means by other industries is certainly up for debate but as it stands, Alphabet presides over a host of emerging tech companies so Fadell’s options are essentially endless. At the end of his post, Fadell acknowledged everyone responsible for allowing Nest to be the brand that it is before thanking the company’s customers and officially sending himself off with a simple, “onward.”
