India has repeatedly shown that it is the source of some of its brilliant brains. India and people of Indian descent have managed some of the world’s most successful businesses and companies, from tech geeks making their names known throughout Silicon Valley to tycoons who head some of the most renowned conglomerates.
Here is a list of the 25 CEOs of the largest firms in the world who are of Indian descent.
- Sundar Pichai, Alphabet
Every time the subject of CEOs of multinational firms of Indian descent is brought up, Sundar Pichai’s name stands out as being in a league of its own. He graduated from IIT Kharagpur and became the CEO of Google in 2015. In December 2019, he was named CEO of Alphabet Inc, Google’s parent company.
2. Satya Nadella, Microsoft
Satya Nadella, another well-known figure in Silicon Valley, received his undergraduate degree from the Manipal University of Technology before continuing his education at the Universities of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Chicago. When Satya Nadella assumed the position of Executive Chairman and CEO of Microsoft in 2014, he was added to the list of notable CEOs of Indian descent.
- Parag Agrawal, Twitter
IIT Bombay graduate Parag Agrawal, one of the most recent entrants to the list, attended Stanford University to further his education. When Twitter’s creator Jack Dorsey resigned in November this year, Parag Agrawal was named the new CEO.
- Leena Nair, Chanel
Leena Nair, who became the first female and youngest CEO of Chanel this year in December, is one of the most recent CEOs of Indian descent to make a significant impact. Leena Nair, a graduate of the Walchand College of Engineering and the XLRI-Xavier School of Management, served as Unilever’s previous chief human resource officer.
5. Shantanu Narayen, Adobe Inc.
Shantanu Narayen, a Hyderabad native, attended Osmania University before continuing his education at the University of California and Bowling Green State University. Before being named CEO in December 2007, Shantanu Narayen was president and chief operating officer of Adobe Inc.
- Arvind Krishna, IBM
Arvind Krishna, an IIT Kanpur alum, continued his education at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. In April 2020, he was named CEO of IBM, and in January 2021, he was named Chairman.
- Sanjay Mehrotra, Micron Technology
Sanjay Mehrotra, a native of Kanpur, graduated from BITS Pilani and received his higher education at UC Berkeley. In 2017, Sanjay Mehrotra was appointed CEO of Micron Technologies. Additionally, he co-founded Sandisk, where he was CEO in 2016.
- Nikesh Arora, Palo Alto Networks
Nikesh Arora attended Boston College and Northeastern University after graduating from the Indian Institute of Technology, BHU. In June 2018, Palo Alto Networks named Nikesh Arora its CEO and Chairman.
- Jayshree Ullal, Arista Networks
India-born and London-born Santa Clara University and San Francisco State University are both alumni of Jayshree Ullal’s alma mater. She has held this role since October 2008 and is currently the CEO and President of Arista Networks.
- Amrapali Gan, Only Fans
Amrapali Gan is a California State University alumnus who was born in Mumbai. Tim Stokely, the company’s creator, was succeeded by her as CEO of Only Fans in December 2021.
- Ajaypal Singh Banga, Mastercard
Ajaypal Singh Banga graduated from the Indian Institute of Management and St. Stephen’s College. He was the company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) from July 2010 to December 31, 2020, and he is currently the Executive Chairman of Mastercard.
- Indra Nooyi, Pepsico
Indra Nooyi, raised in Chennai, graduated from Yale University, the Indian Institute of Management, and the University of Madras. Indra Nooyi was appointed PepsiCo’s fifth CEO in 2006 and held the role until August 2018, when she announced her resignation.
- Sanjay Jha, Global Foundries
In January 2014, Sanjay Jha was appointed CEO of Global Foundries, a semiconductor foundry that manufactures chips for industry leaders like AMD, Broadcom, Qualcomm, and STMicroelectronics. Before that, he was CEO of Motorola Mobility and COO of Qualcomm.
Jha was raised in Bhagalpur, Bihar, and has both BS and Ph.D. degrees from the Universities of Liverpool and Strathclyde. Sanjay spent fourteen years with Qualcomm before joining Motorola, where he eventually rose to the post of Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) from 2006 to 2008.
14. Francisco D’Souza, Cognizant
Francisco D’Souza is the CEO and a member of the board of directors of Cognizant, and he is one of the youngest CEOs in the software services industry.
D’Souza was born in Kenya and is the son of an Indian diplomat. D’Souza holds a BBA from the University of East Asia in Macau and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. He also serves as an independent director on the board of General Electric.
- Raj Subramaniam, FedEx
The IIT Bombay graduate in chemical engineering is a native of Thiruvananthapuram in the state of Kerala in southern India. He has worked with FedEx for more than 30 years. Before being appointed president and CEO of the massive logistics company on March 29, 2022, Subramaniam performed a variety of strategic and operations positions in different geographical locations.
- George Kurian, NetApp
After nearly two years as its executive vice president of product operations, George Kurian was named CEO and president of storage and data management firm NetApp in June 2015. George formerly served as vice president and general manager of Cisco Systems’ Application Networking and Switching Technology Group.
In addition, he served as vice president at Akamai Technologies, performed management consulting work at McKinsey & Company, and oversaw teams responsible for software engineering and product management at Oracle Corporation.
He was up in Kerala’s Kottayam district and studied engineering at IIT-Madras before leaving after six months to enroll at Princeton University. He also has an MBA from Stanford.
- CS Venkatakrishnan, Barclays
Following Jes Staley’s abrupt resignation on November 1, 2021, Barclays named CS Venkatakrishnan as CEO. Venkatakrishnan, an MIT graduate, spent 20 years with New York-based JPMorgan Chase before switching to Barclays in 2016. Venkatakrishnan, the position’s first person of color, is regarded as striking a delicate balance between a consensus-seeker and a risk-taker.
- Rangarajan Raghuram, VMware
The cloud computing business moved Raghuram from executive vice-president and chief operating officer for products and cloud services to CEO on June 1, 2021. Since entering the company in 2003, he has led attempts to diversify while also assisting in expanding its primary business.
- Sharmistha Dubey, Match
Previously assuming the CEO role on March 1, 2020, Sharmistha Dubey, also known by the moniker “Shar,” led Match. She served as the chief operating officer of Tinder, one of Match’s numerous dating and matrimonial websites, before leading the $40 billion conglomerate.
- Sonia Syngal, Gap
Gap has hired Syngal since 2014. The executive of Indian descent and Canadian ancestry oversaw Old Navy for four years until being appointed CEO of Gap on March 23, 2020. She has reduced the number of stores and increased risk-taking as part of her effort to assist the faltering fashion business.
- Sandeep Mathrani, WeWork
Mathrani did not develop with WeWork, in contrast to several other CEOs of Indian descent. On February 18, 2020, a stranger was hired for the vital position. The real estate specialist gave the responsibility of modernizing and expanding the business.
- Niren Chaudhary, Panera Bread
On May 23, 2019, Chaudhary joined Panera from the world’s largest doughnut company, Krispy Kreme, where he was president and COO. Before that, he worked for Yum! Brands, the parent firm of KFC and Taco Bell, for 23 years in both India and the US.
- Revathi Advaithi, Flex
On February 11, 2019, Advaithi was hired to run a business that produces everything from Macs to hair dryers. The Birla Institute of Technology and Science Pilani (BITS) mechanical engineering alumna is a fervent supporter of STEM education for women and workplace diversity.
- Punit Renjen, Deloitte
A small-town lad from Rohtak, Haryana, Renjen, moved to the US after obtaining a Rotary Foundation Scholarship that allowed him to attend Willamette University’s Atkinson Graduate School of Management. He assumed the role of CEO of Deloitte on May 31, 2015. Since then, he has not turned back. His octogenarian mother still resides in the Rohtak home where he was raised, making him the first Asian to head one of the Big Four consulting firms.
- Dinesh Paliwal, Harman
President and CEO of Harman International own brands like JBL, Becker, and dbx, Dinesh Paliwal.
Paliwal, who was up in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, has a BE from IIT Roorkee and an MBA and MS from Miami University. He worked for ABB Group for 22 years before joining Harman, where he most recently served as Chairman/CEO of ABB North America and President of ABB Group, with responsibility for the company’s global P&L.
He is a member of the Bristol-Myers Squibb board of directors and formerly worked for three years as the governor of China’s Guangdong province’s economic advisor.
