Sergey today: “I think a lot of people think I’m naive, and that may well be true, but I wouldn’t have started a search engine in 1998 if I wasn’t naive.” “I’m an optimist. I want to find a way to work within the Chinese system and provide more and better information. ...perhaps it won’t succeed immediately tomorrow but maybe in a year or two” (<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/4352214379">more on China</a>)

Trends in Entrepreneurship That Are Changing the World by Mary Grove, Director of Google for Entrepreneurs, Featuring Special Guest Sergey Brin, President of Alphabet, Google Co-Founder. . [GES Photo/Public Domain]

With Google Co-Founder Sergey Brin looking on, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry chats with Rebekah in Seoul, South Korea, through a Google Portal Interaction at the 2016 Global Entrepreneurship Summit's Innovation Marketplace on the campus of Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, on June 23, 2016. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry chats with Google Co-Founder Sergey Brin and a leader of Google's Self-Driving Car Project while sitting inside one of Google's self-driving cars at the 2016 Global Entrepreneurship's Innovation Marketplace on the campus of Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, on June 23, 2016. [State Department photo/ Public Domain] [State Department photo/ Public Domain]

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry chats with Google Co-Founder Sergey Brin after viewing one of Google's self-driving cars at the 2016 Global Entrepreneurship's Innovation Marketplace on the campus of Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, on June 23, 2016. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]

Google Co-Founder Sergey Brin and a leader of Google's Self-Driving Car Project show U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry the computers inside one of Google's self-driving cars at the 2016 Global Entrepreneurship's Innovation Marketplace on the campus of Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, on June 23, 2016. [State Department photo/ Public Domain] [State Department photo/ Public Domain]

Google Co-Founder Sergey Brin shows U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry the sensor displays inside one of Google's self-driving cars at the 2016 Global Entrepreneurship's Innovation Marketplace on the campus of Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, on June 23, 2016. [State Department photo/ Public Domain]

A surprise guest at TED 2010, Sergey spoke openly about Google’s new posture with China.

Larry Page, Sergey Brin, and the Google team with Matti Vanhanen in 2008.

Left to right, Eric E. Schmidt, Sergey Brin and Larry Page of Google