Chennai, Aug 11 (IANS): The students and teachers of Tamil Nadu's Vanavani Matriculation Higher Secondary School here were feeling highly elated on Tuesday -- and they had every reason to be so.

Sundar Pichai, a former student of their school, has been appointed the chief executive officer of Google, the multi-national American technology company.

At the school, principal Kaveri Padmanabhan told the students about Pichai's elevation as Google chief, adding that opportunities are wide open for anyone who puts in the necessary efforts.

"We told the students about Pichai's achievement in the morning assembly. We would certainly like him to address our students if there is an opportunity," Padmanabhan said.

According to one of Pichai's senior at the school, located inside the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras (IIT-M) campus here, he used to be shy but had studious looks.

"At school he used to look very studious and shy. Later, I met him in the US once. There, Pichai was a different person. He was livelier and was mingling with people with ease," Pattu Subramaniam, who heads logistics operations at BMW India here, told IANS.

"We used to focus on the all-round development of the students and just not on studies," A. Ayyasamy, a retired principal of the school, told IANS.

Pichai is the second person from this city to be chosen to head a global corporation after Indira Nooyi, chairperson and chief executive officer of American multinational food and beverage major PepsiCo.