Top 30 CEO of Indian Origin Who are CEOs of Best Multinational Companies
For decades, Indians have played a significant role in the global success of technology powerhouses. Not many countries can boast of producing the heads of the world’s most significant companies, who play a critical part in their expansion. Indians have progressively ascended the corporate ladders around the world over the years, and have also played a major role in the establishment of many of the world’s global powerhouses.
India has repeatedly demonstrated that it is the cradle of some of the world’s most creative brains. India and Indian blood have gone on to lead some of the world’s most successful businesses and companies, from IT geeks making their name known across Silicon Valley to tycoons who head some of the world’s most successful conglomerates.
Indians have proven to be pioneers in a variety of fields, including science, art, sports, and technology. With the advancement of the twenty-first century, this list has expanded to cover the corporate world as well. Sundar Pichai, Leena Nair, and Satya Nadella, for example, have carved out a name for themselves as some of the world’s most formidable changemakers.
Indians have been involved in the invention and marketing management of life-changing companies ranging from Pepsi to Mastercard. There is a slew of organisations, from IBM, Cognizant, and Adobe to software behemoths like Google and Microsoft, mobile behemoths like Nokia, and content kings like OnlyFans, with CEOs of Indian ancestry who are unquestionably raising the bar.
Indians are the CEOs of 30 per cent of Fortune 500 companies. According to 2015 statistics, India accounts for one-third of all engineers in Silicon Valley (USA) and 10% of the world’s high-tech business CEOs.
This is a list of the Top 30 Indian-origin CEOs Leading Multinational Companies.
1. Sundar Pichai
Full Name- Pichai Sundarajan
Company Name- Alphabet Inc. and Google
Date of Birth- June 10, 1972
Place of Birth- Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India
Market Capitalisation- $ 1.89 Trillion
Term of Office- Google ( 2015- Present) and Alphabet Inc. ( 2019- Present)
When it comes to Indian-origin CEOs heading multinational corporations, Sundar Pichai’s name stands out significantly. Sundar Pichai, also known as Pichai Sundararajan, was born in Tamil Nadu, India. He is a notable alumnus of IIT Kharagpur, where he earned a degree in metallurgical engineering. He received his M.S. from Stanford University and his MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, where he was named a Siebel Scholar and a Palmer Scholar.
He began his career as a materials engineer before joining Google as a management executive in 2004 and eventually becoming the company’s CEO in 2015. Pichai joined Google in 2004 and was in charge of product management and innovation for several of Google’s client software products, including Google Chrome and Chrome OS, as well as Google Drive. On August 10, 2015, Pichai was named the next CEO of Google, following CEO Larry Page’s appointment of him as Product Chief.
He began his new role on October 24, 2015, following the establishment of Alphabet Inc., the new holding company for the Google firm family. In 2017, he was elected to the Alphabet Board of Directors. In 2016 and 2020, Pichai was named on Time’s annual list of the 100 most influential people. In December 2019, Pichai was chosen as the CEO of Google parent company Alphabet, succeeding Larry Page. Pichai was awarded the Padma Bhushan by the Indian government in 2022, the country’s third-highest civilian honour.
2. Satya Nadella
Full Name- Satya Narayana Nadella
Company Name- Microsoft
Date of Birth- August 19, 1967
Place of Birth- Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India
Market Capitalisation- $ 2,319.68 Billion
Term of Office- 2014- Present
When Satya Nadella became the Executive Chairman and CEO of Microsoft in 2014, he was added to the list of powerful Indian-origin CEOs. Hyderabad born Satya Nadella holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Manipal Institute of Technology, and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. He also earned an MBA from the Booth School of Business, Chicago University. Following Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer as the company’s first two CEOs, Nadella was named the company’s third CEO on February 4, 2014.
He succeeded John W. Thompson as Chairman of Microsoft in 2021. Nadella has led important projects at Microsoft, including the company’s shift to cloud computing and the creation of one of the world’s largest cloud infrastructures. In addition to serving as the Online Services Division’s senior vice president of research and development (R&D), Nadella was also the director of the Microsoft Business Division. He later became president of Microsoft’s $19 billion Server and Tools business, where he oversaw a change in the company’s culture from client services to cloud infrastructure and services.
He is recognised for assisting Microsoft is bringing its database, Windows Server, and developer tools to the Azure cloud. He was named a Time 100 recipient in 2018. In 2019, Nadella was named Person of the Year by the Financial Times and Businessperson of the Year by Fortune magazine. At CNBC-India TV18’s Business Leader Awards in Mumbai in 2020, Nadella was named a Global Indian Business Icon. The Government of India has awarded Nadella the Padma Bhushan, in 2022.
3. Parag Agrawal
Full Name- Parag Agrawal
Company Name- Twitter
Date of Birth- May 21, 1984
Place of Birth- Ajmer, Rajasthan, India
Market Capitalisation- $ 31.47 Billion
Term of Office- 2021- Present
Parag Agrawal, an IIT Bombay graduate who studied at Stanford University, is one of the most recent entrants to the list of CEOs. When Twitter founder Jack Dorsey stepped down in November, Parag Agrawal was selected as the company’s new CEO. In 2001, he graduated from Atomic Energy Central School and Junior College No.4. Agrawal took the Joint Entrance Exam and received a 77th place finish, allowing him to attend IIT Bombay.
From the same institution, he earned a B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering in 2005. After that, Parag decided to pursue a PhD in computer science at Stanford University in the United States. Before joining Twitter, Parag held various executive positions at Microsoft Research and Yahoo! Research. Parag Agarwal joined Twitter as a software engineer in 2011.
Agrawal succeeded Adam Massinger as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) in October 2017. He held this position until November 29, 2021, when he was named Chief Executive Officer of the corporation after former CEO Jack Dorsey stepped down. In December 2019, he was named to lead Project Bluesky, which is a project led by then CEO Jack Dorsey to design a decentralised social network protocol. Agrawal received $1 million in annual remuneration as CEO, as well as $12.5 million in stock compensation.
4. Leena Nair
Full Name- Leena Nair
Company Name- Chanel
Date of Birth- June 11, 1969
Place of Birth- Kolhapur, Maharashtra, India
Market Capitalisation- $ 11.5 Billion
Term of Office- January 2022- Present
Leena Nair, a British-Indian Business Executive, the first woman and youngest CEO of Chanel, is another recent Indian-origin CEO who has made a mark. She was selected as the first woman and youngest CEO of Chanel this year in January. Leena was an Electronics Engineering student at Walchand College of Engineering in Kolhapur, Maharashtra. Leena proceeded to XLRI Jamshedpur after finishing her graduation and graduated with a gold medal. In 2016, Nair joined the Anglo-Dutch business Unilever, where she was notably appointed as the company’s Chief Human Resource Officer.
She was the youngest, first female, and first Asian woman to achieve the accomplishment. Before she was appointed the CHRO, Leena had several senior positions within the same organisation. During her time at Unilever, Nair managed 190 countries’ human resources and diverse regulatory and labour frameworks. Under her leadership, Unilever has been named the number one FMCG employer of choice in 54 countries. Leena Nair was recently named the next CEO of Chanel, the French fashion house.
She joined Chanel in January 2022, taking up her new position. Indra Nooyi, the former CEO of PepsiCo, is her mentor. In 2017, Nair was named as one of the most distinguished Indian business leaders in the United Kingdom by Queen Elizabeth II. The Economic Times’ Prime Women Leadership Awards named her Global Indian of the Year in 2020. Role Model of the Year, The Great British Businesswoman’s Awards (2021), and Fortune India’s Most Powerful Women’s List (2021) are among the honours Nair has earned.
5. Amrapali Gan
Full Name- Amrapali Ami Gan
Company Name- OnlyFans
Date of Birth- 1985
Place of Birth- Mumbai, India
Market Capitalisation- $ 1 Billion
Term of Office- December 2021- Present
Amrapali Gan is a California State University alumna who was born in Mumbai. On December 21, 2021, Amrapali Gan was designated the new CEO of London-based internet content subscription service company OnlyFans, with Tim Stokely, the company’s creator, stepping down. On the same day, the NRI Indian CEO took up her position.
Amrapali Gan, often known as ‘Ami’ Gan, received her early and upper schooling in California, United States. Gan graduated from FIDM with an Associate of Arts in Merchandise Marketing. She subsequently went on to California State University to earn a Bachelor of Arts in Public Relations and Organizational Communications. She also attended Harvard Business School Online to get her Certificate in Entrepreneurship.
She previously worked with Red Bull and Quest Nutrition and was the Vice President of Cannabis Cafe. She became the chief marketing and communications officer of OnlyFans, a content creators’ site in September 2020. In December 2021, she was named CEO of Only Fans, succeeding founder Tim Stokely in the role. Ami had spent the previous four years as a consultant with Arcade Agency before being named CEO of OnlyFans.
6. Shantanu Narayen
Full Name- Shantanu Narayen
Company Name- Adobe Inc.
Date of Birth- May 26, 1963
Place of Birth- Hyderabad, Telangana, India
Market Capitalisation- $ 216.49 Billion
Term of Office- 2007- Present
Shantanu Narayan, who was born in Hyderabad, India, began his career at Apple. He graduated from Osmania University with a bachelor’s degree in science, an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley, and a master’s degree from Bowling Green State University. At the age of 45, Narayen joined Adobe in 1998 and was appointed CEO in December 2007.
Shantanu Narayen was the President and Chief Operating Officer of Adobe Inc. until being named CEO in December 2007. Narayen also represented India in a sailing regatta in Asia, and Barron’s Magazine named him one of the world’s top CEOs in 2016. As CEO, Narayen oversaw the company’s transformation, which included shifting the company’s creative and digital document software franchises to the cloud, including flagship programmes like Photoshop, Premiere Pro, and Acrobat/PDF.
Furthermore, during his term as CEO, Adobe expanded into the digital experiences area, beginning with the acquisition of Omniture in 2009. Adobe’s market capitalization surpassed $100 billion in 2018, and the company became a member of the Fortune 400 for the first time. It was also placed No. 13 on Forbes’ list of the Most Innovative Companies in 2018.
7. Arvind Krishna
Full Name- Arvind Krishna
Company Name- IBM
Date of Birth- 1962
Place of Birth- Godavari, Andhra Pradesh, India
Market Capitalisation- $ 116.65 Billion
Term of Office- 2020- Present
Arvind Krishna, the CEO of IBM who took over as Chairman on January 1, 2021, was born in Andhra Pradesh, India. He attended St Joseph’s Academy in Dehradun and the Stanes School in Coonoor, Tamil Nadu, for his education. In 1985, he acquired a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT Kanpur, and later a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the same institution.
Arvind Krishna, went on to the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign to further his education. Krishna began his IBM career as an engineer in IBM Research and rose through the ranks to become CEO in 2020. He presently serves as Chairman and CEO of IBM. In April 2020, he was named CEO of IBM, and in January 2021, he was named Chairman of the company.
Krishna started with IBM’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center in 1990 and stayed there for 18 years, till 2009. Following that, he worked for IBM as a General Manager in the Information Management Software and Systems and Technology group. He was named senior vice president of IBM Research in 2015. He also headed IBM’s efforts to develop and expand new markets in artificial intelligence, cloud computing, quantum computing, and blockchain.
He was instrumental in IBM’s $34 billion purchase of Red Hat, which was completed in July 2019. He took over as CEO of IBM in January 2020, with an effective date of April 6, 2020, succeeding Ginni Rometty, who had been the CEO since 2012. He is the fourth Indian-American CEO of a major US technology corporation, following Sundar Pichai, Shantanu Narayen, and Satya Nadella. CRN awarded him the year’s “Most Influential Executive” in 2021.
8. Sanjay Mehrotra
Full Name- Sanjay Mehrotra
Company Name- Micron
Date of Birth- June 27, 1958
Place of Birth- Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, India
Market Capitalisation- $ 85.06 Billion
Term of Office- 2017- Present
Kanpur-born Sanjay Mehrotra began his college career at BITS Pilani before transferring to the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, respectively. He is Micron Technology’s current CEO, having taken over when Mark Durcan retired in February 2017. He previously co-founded SanDisk and served as its president and CEO until the company was acquired by Western Digital in 2016. Mehrotra is the owner of over 70 patents.
He’s written articles about non-volatile memory design and flash memory systems. From 2011 to 2016, Mehrotra served as president and CEO of SanDisk, which he co-founded in 1988. He has held engineering and managerial positions at SanDisk, Micron, SEEQ Technology, Integrated Device Technology, Intel, and Atmel during his more than 30 years in the non-volatile semiconductor memory sector. The University of California, Berkeley, presented him with the Distinguished Alumni Award in Electrical Engineering in 2013.
The Chinese Institute of Engineers USA presented him with the ‘Distinguished Lifetime Achievement Award’ at the 13th annual Asian American Engineer of the Year Award ceremony on March 1, 2014. Mehrotra was named 2019 head of the Semiconductor Sector Association, the key advocacy organisation for the US semiconductor industry when he was CEO of Micron. In 2022, Mehrotra was inducted into the National Academy of Engineering, one of the profession’s greatest honours.
9. Jayshree Ullal
Full Name- Jayshree V. Ullal
Company Name- Arista Networks
Date of Birth- March 27, 1961
Place of Birth- New Delhi, India
Market Capitalisation- $ 42.86 Billion
Term of Office- 2008- Present
Jayashree Ullal, Arista Networks’ President and CEO, was born in New Delhi and attended San Francisco State University, where she earned a B.S. in Engineering. She subsequently moved on to Santa Clara University to earn a Master’s degree in Engineering Management. She is the CEO and President of Arista Networks, a post she has held since October 2008. Ullal began her career in engineering and strategy at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Fairchild Semiconductor.
She spent four years at Ungermann-Bass as director of internetworking products before joining Crescendo Communications. Ullal was promoted to vice president of marketing at Crescendo, where she worked on 100-Mbit/s over copper, the first CDDI products, and first-generation Ethernet switching. Andy Bechtolsheim and David Cheriton, co-founders of Arista Networks, a cloud networking business based in Santa Clara, had named Ullal CEO and President in October 2008.
For her work at Arista Networks, Forbes magazine called Ullal ‘one of the top five most significant people in the networking industry today.’ In June 2014, Ullal led Arista Networks to an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol ANET. In 2018, Barron’s named Jayshree one of the ‘World’s Best CEOs,’ and in 2019, Fortune named her one of the ‘Top 20 Business Persons.’
10. Nikesh Arora
Full Name- Nikesh Arora
Company Name- Palo Alto Networks
Date of Birth- February 9, 1968
Place of Birth- Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India
Market Capitalisation- $ 60.18 Billion
Term of Office- 2018- Present
Nikesh Arora was named CEO and Chairman of Palo Alto Networks in June 2018. He has worked with Google and SoftBank in the past. Arora possesses a Btech degree in Electrical Engineering from IIT BHU, Varanasi, and is the son of an Indian Air Force Officer. Arora also possesses a bachelor’s degree from Boston College and a master’s degree from Northeastern University.
Nikesh Arora has kept his CFA designation from 1999. Arora joined Fidelity Investments in 1992 and worked his way up through the ranks of finance and technology management, eventually becoming vice president of finance for Fidelity Technologies. Nikesh Arora has worked at Deutsche Telekom, Putnam Investments, and Fidelity Investments, among other companies.
In 2004, Arora joined Google. From January 2011 to July 2014, he served as Google Inc.’s senior vice president and chief business officer. In July 2014, he resigned from his position as senior vice president and chief business officer at Google. Nikesh has been the CEO of Palo Alto Networks since 2018.
11. George Kurian
Full Name- George Kurian
Company Name- NetApp
Date of Birth- 1967
Place of Birth- Kerala, India
Market Capitalisation- $ 18.29 Billion
Term of Office- 2015- Present
George Kurian was named CEO and President of Netapps in June 2015, after serving as the company’s executive vice president of product operations for two years. He was born in Kerala’s Kottayam region and studied engineering at IIT-Madras.
George Kurian graduated from Stanford Graduate School of Business in 1995. He also has a Princeton University electrical engineering degree. Thomas Kurian, the CEO of Google Cloud, is his twin brother.
Kurian has worked as a vice president at Akamai Technologies, did management consulting at McKinsey & Company, and led the Oracle Corporation’s Software Engineering and Product Management teams. In 2011, Kurian was named Senior Vice President of NetApp’s Storage Solutions Group. In 2013, he was elevated to EVP of Product Operations. In 2015, he was elevated to Chief Executive Officer.
12. Revathi Adwaithi
Full Name- Revathi Adwaithi
Company Name- Flex
Date of Birth- October 18, 1967
Place of Birth- Chennai, India
Market Capitalisation- $ 8.59 Billion
Term of Office- 2019- Present
Revathi Advaithi is an Indian-American business entrepreneur who was born in India. She is the CEO of Flex and a champion for women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). Advaithi obtained a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Birla Institute of Technology and Science in 1990 and a master’s degree in business administration from Thunderbird School of Global Management in 2005.
Advaithi began her career as a shop floor supervisor at Eaton, then moved on to Honeywell before returning to Eaton as COO for the next ten years. She finally left Eaton and became the CEO of Flex in 2019. In addition to her current position, she serves as an independent director on the boards of directors of Uber and Catalyst.org. Advaithi is a co-chair of the WEF Advanced Manufacturing CEO Community (2022) and a member of the WEF Alliance of Climate Leaders (2021).
In addition, she serves on the MIT Presidential CEO Advisory Board. Advaithi was included in Fortune’s Most Powerful Women list in 2019, 2020, and 2021, making her one of the few Indian-born CEOs recognised. Advaithi was also named one of India’s Most Powerful Women in 2020 by Business Today. Flex was selected as one of Fortune’s Global 500 and named one of the World’s Most Admired Companies during Advaithi’s leadership.
13. Rangarajan Raghuram
Full Name- Rangarajan Raghu Raghuram
Company Name- VMware
Date of Birth- 1964
Place of Birth- India
Market Capitalisation- $ 48.77 Billion
Term of Office- 2021- Present
VMWare’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO)For Products and Cloud Services, Rangarajan Raghuram, has been in his position since June 1, 2021. Raghuram earned his master’s degree in business administration from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School in 1996, as well as a master’s degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.
Raghuram has held several significant leadership positions, impacting the company’s strategies and bringing about the technological transformation that VMWare has witnessed. From September 2003 to December 2009, he worked at VMware in a variety of product management and solution marketing roles.
Before joining VMware, he had managerial and marketing positions at Netscape and Bang Networks, Inc. VMware creates software that makes the world’s complex digital infrastructure easier to manage. Customers can deliver any application on any cloud across any device with the help of its cloud, networking, security, app modernization, and digital workspace capabilities.
14. Laxman Narasimhan
Full Name- Laxman Narasimhan
Company Name- Reckitt Benckiser
Date of Birth- 1968
Place of Birth- India
Market Capitalisation- $ 57.22 Billion
Term of Office- September 2019- Present
Laxman Narasimhan was chosen CEO of Reckitt Benckiser in September 2019 after leading PepsiCo as Chief Commercial Officer. Narasimhan holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Savitribai Phule Pune University in India, as well as an MA in German and International Studies from The Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania.
He also has a finance MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. He is a multilingual orator who can speak up to six different languages. Narasimhan was a director and site manager at McKinsey’s New Delhi office for 19 years, ascending to that position in 2012.
He joined PepsiCo in 2012 and rose through the ranks to become the company’s chief commercial officer. In September 2019, he took over as CEO of Reckitt Benckiser from Rakesh Kapoor. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations in New York City and a trustee of the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC.
15. Punit Renjen
Full Name- Punit Renjen
Company Name- Deloitte
Date of Birth- 1961
Place of Birth- Rohtak, Haryana, India
Market Capitalisation- $ 168.12 Billion
Term of Office- June 2015- Present
Punit Renjen is an Indian-American businessman who has served as the CEO of Deloitte, a global professional services corporation, since June 1, 2015. Renjen was born and raised in Rohtak, Haryana, in North India. In 1986, he graduated from Willamette University’s Atkinson Graduate School of Management with a Master of Management.
He was hired by Touche Ross, which merged with Deloitte in 1989. Since then, he has worked for Deloitte and has resided in the United States. Renjen was previously the chairman and CEO of Deloitte Consulting LLP, as well as the chairman of Deloitte LLP (United States) from 2011 to 2015.
Renjen is a member of The Wall Street Journal CEO Council, United Way Worldwide, the US-India Business Council, and the Business Roundtable, in addition to serving on Deloitte Global’s boards of directors as part of his present employment.
16. Anjali Sud
Full Name- Anjali Sud
Company Name- Vimeo
Date of Birth- August 13, 1983
Place of Birth- Detroit, Chicago
Market Capitalisation- $ 2.14 Billion
Term of Office- 2017- Present
Anjali Sud, the CEO of Vimeo, is an American businesswoman of Indian descent who was born in Detroit, Michigan. At the age of 14, Sud chose to attend Phillips Andover Academy, a prestigious school. She finally earned a B.Sc. in Finance and Management from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, and an MBA from Harvard Business School to round it off.
Sud worked for Sagent Advisors, Time Warner, and Amazon between 2005 and 2014 in finance, media, and e-commerce. Sud became the Head of Global Marketing at Vimeo, an IAC company, in 2014. She went on to become the General Manager of Vimeo’s core creator business, where she expanded the company’s video hosting, distribution, and monetization offerings.
Anjali Sud was named CEO of Vimeo in July 2017. Sud is also a member of the Dolby Laboratories Board of Directors and a member of the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders programme. She was named one of Fortune’s 40 Under 40 rising business leaders in 2018.
17. Vivek Sankaran
Full Name- Vivek Sankaran
Company Name- Albertsons Companies
Date of Birth- May 3, 1966
Place of Birth- India
Market Capitalisation- $ 16.93 Billion
Term of Office- April 2019- Present
Vivek Sankaran, an Indian-American, is the President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Albertsons Companies, America’s largest grocery and medicine retailer. Sankaran graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering in 1985.
He worked for a Belgian corporation before going to the United States in 1987 to pursue a master’s degree in industrial engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology. In 1993, he received his MBA from the University of Michigan’s Stephen M. Ross School of Business. Sankaran had a 10-year career at PepsiCo when he was named as Chief Strategy Officer by former CEO Indra Nooyi in 2009.
He was hired as CEO of PepsiCo Foods North America in December 2018. PrBeforehat, he was the company’s President and Chief Operating Officer for two years. Sankaran was a partner at McKinsey and Company before joining PepsiCo in 2009. He advised several Fortune 100 firms. He now runs America’s second-largest grocery store network. On April 25, 2019, Sankaran began his new position. Sankaran is involved with several charitable endeavours and organisations.
18. Niraj Shah
Full Name- Niraj S. Shah
Company Name- Wayfair
Date of Birth- 1974
Place of Birth- Pittsburgh, Massachusetts
Market Capitalisation- $ 12.26 Billion
Term of Office- 2002- Present
Niraj S. Shah is a billionaire Indian-American unicorn entrepreneur who co-founded Wayfair, one of America’s largest retail chains, with a friend in 2002. He was born in the United States to Indian immigrants.
Shah graduated with a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Cornell University in 1995. Shah co-founded Wayfair with his Cornell classmate Steve Conine in 2002 and has served as its CEO ever since. Shah was named to Fortune’s “40 Under 40” list for 2013.
He was also appointed to the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston’s board of directors in 2017. Wayfair’s stock price surpassed $70 per share in May 2017, making Shah and his co-founder Steve Conine billionaires. Each had an estimated net worth of $2.3 billion as of 2019.
19. Ivan Menezes
Full Name- Ivan Manuel Menezes
Company Name- Diageo
Date of Birth- July 1959
Place of Birth- Pune, India
Market Capitalisation- $ 118.95 Billion
Term of Office- July 2013- Present
Menezes is an American/British business executive who was born in India. He is an IIM graduate who became the CEO of Diageo, the British beverages conglomerate, in July 2013. He attended St. Stephen’s College in Delhi and the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad, as well as the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
In 1981, he began his career with Nestle, and later he joined Diageo. Menezes joined Diageo in 1997 and has held several prominent positions, including Chairman and Chief Operating Officer. He succeeded Paul S. Walsh as CEO of Diageo in 2013, one of the world’s most recognisable British multinational alcoholic firms.
One of his first steps after becoming CEO was to purchase a full stake in India’s United Spirits company. Guinness, Johnnie Walker Whisky, Smirnoff vodka, and Captain Morgan rum are just a few of the brands owned by the firm.
20. Vasant Narasimhan
Full Name- Vasant Kalathur Narasimhan
Company Name- Novartis
Date of Birth- August 26, 1976
Place of Birth- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Market Capitalisation- $ 195.17 Billion
Term of Office- September 2017- Present
Vasant Narasimhan is an Indian American doctor who is currently the CEO of Novartis, a pharmaceutical company. He earned a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from the University of Chicago, followed by an MD from Harvard Medical School and a master’s degree in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Narasimhan previously worked at Sandoz International as the Global Head of Biopharmaceuticals and Oncology Injectables. In 2005, Narasimhan joined Novartis. He was the Global Head of Development for Novartis Pharmaceuticals from 2014 to 2016. He served as the company’s Global Head of Drug Development and Chief Medical Officer from 2016 to 2018.
On September 5, 2017, he was named Novartis’ new CEO, succeeding Joseph Jimenez. He is a fellow of Harvard Medical School’s board of fellows and a member of the National Academy of Medicine in the United States. In 2015, he was ranked seventh on Fortune’s ’40 under 40′ list.
21. Sharmistha Dubey
Full Name- Sharmishtha Shar Dubey
Company Name- Match Group
Date of Birth- 1970
Place of Birth- Jamshedpur, India
Market Capitalisation- $ 32.31 Billion
Term of Office- 2020- Present
Sharmistha ‘Shar’ Dubey is the chief executive officer (CEO) of Match Group, which owns 45 dating applications including OkCupid and Tinder among other online dating services. Jamshedpur is where Dubey was born and raised. Dubey also serves on the boards of directors of Match Group and Fortive Corporation.
In 1993, she graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur with a bachelor’s degree in engineering. Sundar Pichai was one of her classmates at IIT Kharagpur and she was the only female metallurgical engineer that year. Dubey returned to her hometown after graduation and worked for a steel company for a year. Later, Dubey earned a master’s degree from Ohio State University.
In 1998, Dubey started her career as an engineer at Texas Instruments before moving on to i2 Technologies, a supply chain management software company. Dubey joined Match in 2006 and has held many positions at the company, including the president of Match Group Americas. She went on to have a decade-long career at Match, eventually becoming its CEO in 2020.
22. Anshu Jain
Full Name- Anshuman Jain
Company Name- Deutsche Bank, Cantor Fitzgerald
Date of Birth- January 7, 1963
Place of Birth- Jaipur, Rajasthan, India
Market Capitalisation- Deutsche Bank ($ 26.94 Billion) and Cantor Fitzgerald ($ 4.43 Billion)
Term of Office- Deutsche Bank (2012-2015), Cantor Fitzgerald (2017- Present)
Anshuman Jain is the current President of Cantor Fitzgerald and is a British Indian business professional. From June 2012 to July 2015, he served as the Global Co-CEO and Co-Chairman of Deutsche Bank. He was on the Management Board of Deutsche Bank and was a consultant to the bank until January 2016. He graduated from DU’s Shri Ram College of Commerce with a degree in Economics and an MBA in Finance from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
After completing his education, he began working as a derivatives research analyst at Kidder, Peabody and Co., where he remained from 1985 to 1988. He joined Deutsche Bank’s nascent markets section in 1995. Jain was named co-CEO of Deutsche Bank in July 2011, alongside native German Jürgen Fitschen, with effect from June 1, 2012. On June 7, 2015, Jain and Fitschen announced their resignations.
In January 2017, he was named president of Cantor Fitzgerald, a mid-sized, private New York-based firm that provides investment banking and other financial services and is led by Howard Lutnick. The Economic Times recognised him as Global Indian of the Year at the Economic Times Awards in 2012. He also received an Honorary Fellowship from London Business School in 2014.
23. Rajeev Suri
Full Name- Rajeev Suri
Company Name- Nokia, Inmarsat
Date of Birth- October 10, 1957
Place of Birth- New Delhi, India
Market Capitalisation- Nokia ($ 31.53 Billion) and Inmarsat ($ 2.56 Billion)
Term of Office- Nokia (2014-2020) Inmarsat ( February 2021-Present)
Rajeev Suri is a former CEO of Nokia and an Indian–Singaporean business executive. He was born in New Delhi, India. Suri graduated from Manipal Institute of Technology with a bachelor’s degree in engineering.
Rajeev has worked in roles such as strategy and M&A, product marketing, sales, key account leadership, and regional and business unit leadership over his more than 20 years of worldwide experience. He worked for major corporations in India and Nigeria before joining Nokia in 1995.
Suri joined Nokia in 1995 and held several critical positions before being named President and CEO in April 2014, following Nokia’s acquisition of full control of the NSN and sale of its phone division to Microsoft Mobile. Suri joined Inmarsat as CEO beginning March 1, 2021, after leaving his position at Nokia in 2020 to make room for Pekka Lundmark, the company’s new CEO.
24. Ajay Banga
Full Name- Ajaypal Singh Banga
Company Name- Mastercard
Date of Birth- November 10, 1959
Place of Birth- Pune, India
Market Capitalisation- $ 358.59 Billion
Term of Office- 2010-2020
Ajaypal Singh Banga, a Pune native who began his business career with Nestlé in 1981, was named President and CEO of Mastercard in July 2010 and held the position until December 31, 2020, when he stepped down to make way for Michael Miebach. He received his elementary education at the Hyderabad Public School in Begumpet and went on to earn a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree in Economics from Delhi University’s St. Stephen’s College, as well as a PGP in Management from IIM Ahmedabad.
Robert W. Selander, who has served as CEO since March 1997, was replaced by Banga. Banga was nominated to the President’s Advisory Committee on Trade Policy and Negotiations by President Barack Obama in February 2015. In July 2021, Banga joined the advisory board of General Atlantic’s BeyondNetZero climate change fund.
In 2016, the Indian government bestowed the civilian honour of Padma Shri to Banga. He is presently the Executive Chairman of Mastercard and previously served as the company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) from July 2010 to December 31, 2020.
25. Dinesh Paliwal
Full Name- Dinesh C. Paliwal
Company Name- Harman International
Date of Birth- December 17, 1957
Place of Birth- Agra, Uttar Pradesh, India
Market Capitalisation- $ 7.79 Billion
Term of Office- 2007- 2020
Paliwal, who was born in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, possesses a BE and an MS from IIT Roorkee. He also holds a master’s degree in business administration from Miami University. Paliwal is best known as the former President and CEO of Harman International.
Paliwal is also a board member of Nestlé, a Fortune Global 100 food and beverage firm, as well as Bristol-Myers Squibb and Raytheon Company, both Fortune 200 companies.
He formerly served on the boards of the National Foreign Trade Council, ABB India Ltd., Lummus Global (an oil and gas technology firm), the US-China Business Council and the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
He also worked as an Economic Advisor to the Governor of China’s Guangdong Province for three years. From 2007 to 2020, he was the president and CEO of Harman International, a manufacturer of audio and infotainment solutions for the automotive, consumer, and professional industries. Paliwal is currently a member of the Harman board of directors.
26. Rakesh Kapoor
Full Name- Rakesh Kapoor
Company Name- Reckitt Benckiser
Date of Birth- August 4, 1958
Place of Birth- Bareilly, India
Market Capitalisation- $ 57. 22 Billion
Term of Office- 2011-2019
Rakesh Kapoor was the CEO of Reckitt Benckiser, an FTSE-listed global firm based in the United Kingdom from 2011 to 2019. He received his education at the Modern School in New Delhi, India, and possesses a BE(Hons) in Chemical Engineering from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS) Pilani, as well as an MBA from the Xavier School of Management in Jamshedpur.
He began his career at Benckiser in 1987 as a Regional Sales Manager and worked his way through the ranks. Before the merger with Benckiser, Kapoor worked for Reckitt & Colman in different capacities, including Regional Sales Manager and General Manager. He was promoted to Senior Vice President, after the merger. In 2001, he was promoted to SVP, Category Development.
In July 2006, he was promoted to EVP, with responsibility for global category management, research and development, media, market research, and strategic alliances. He was appointed as CEO of the company in 2011. Laxman Narasimhan, PepsiCo’s top commercial officer, succeeded Kapoor as CEO in September 2019 after he retired from Reckitt Benckiser in January 2019.
27. Francisco D’Souza
Full Name- Francisco D’Souza
Company Name- Cognizant
Date of Birth- August 23, 1968
Place of Birth- Nairobi, Kenya
Market Capitalisation- $ 47.21 Billion
Term of Office- 2007-2019
D’Souza joined Cognizant in 1994 as a co-founder and rose through the ranks to become the company’s CEO in 2007. Francisco was born in Nairobi, Kenya, to Sushila and Placido D’Souza, an Indian Foreign Service officer with a diploma.
He spent his youth in 11 countries before earning a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Master of Business Administration from the University of East Asia Macau and Carnegie Mellon University, respectively. Francisco D’Souza is an Indian-American entrepreneur and businessman who co-founded the NASDAQ-100 company in 1994 and is the former CEO and Vice Chairman of Cognizant, a Fortune 200 global professional services company.
Francisco D’Souza is a member of the company’s board of directors and one of the company’s youngest CEOs in the software services industry. In 2007, he succeeded Lakshmi Narayanan as CEO, and in 2018, he was named Vice Chairman while continuing to serve as CEO until April 1, 2019.
28. Ashok Vemuri
Full Name- Ashok Vemuri
Company Name- Conduent Inc.
Date of Birth- April 22, 1968
Place of Birth- New Delhi, India
Market Capitalisation- $ 1.12 Billion
Term of Office- 2016-2019
New Delhi-born Ashok Vemuri is a member of Kroger’s Board of Directors for Financial Policy and Public Responsibilities and was previously the CEO of IGATE and Conduent. He graduated from St. Stephen’s College in Delhi with a bachelor’s degree in physics. Vemuri then went on to the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad to get his postgraduate diploma in business management.
Vemuri went on to work for Infosys in management positions. He was chairman of Infosys’ operations in China for a while, and he also served on the boards of Infosys in the Americas and Infosys Public Services. Vemuri was named CEO and president of iGATE, an IT services business, on September 16, 2013. Ashok Vemuri was selected as the new CEO of Xerox’s back-office outsourcing company, Conduent in 2016.
Xerox is a 110-year-old document technology company that has come to symbolise everything related to photocopying over the years. Vemuri was also named Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Xerox Business Services LLC. After Xerox was split into two companies later that year, he became the CEO of Conduent. He resigned as CEO in May of 2019.
29. Sanjay Jha
Full Name- Sanjay Kumar Jha
Company Name- Motorola and GlobalFoundries
Date of Birth- 1963
Place of Birth- Bhagalpur, Bihar, India
Market Capitalisation- Motorola Mobility ($ 12.14 Billion) and GlobalFoundries ($ 32.30 Billion)
Term of Office- Motorola (2008-2012), GlobalFoundries (2014-2018)
Sanjay Jha was born in Bhagalpur, Bihar. He graduated from the University of Liverpool with a BS in electrical engineering and the University of Strathclyde with a PhD in electronics engineering. Sanjay received an honorary D.Sc. degree from the University of Strathclyde in 2011. He was the former chairman and CEO of Motorola Mobility as well as the previous CEO of GlobalFoundries. Before that, he served as Qualcomm’s chief operating officer.
Jha started his Qualcomm career in 1994 as a senior engineer in the Qualcomm very-large-scale integration department, where he worked on the Globalstar satellite phone. Jha was promoted to vice-president of engineering in 1997, where he was in charge of the integrated-circuit engineering group. In 1998, he was elevated to senior vice-president of engineering.
On August 4, 2008, it was announced that he would become the new CEO of Motorola Mobile Devices. He held this position until May 22, 2012, when Google’s Dennis Woodside took over as CEO of Motorola Mobility. Sanjay Jha was announced as the new CEO of GlobalFoundries Inc on January 7, 2014. GlobalFoundries is the world’s second-largest semiconductor foundry company.
30. Indra Nooyi
Full Name- Indra Krishnamurthy
Company Name- PepsiCo
Date of Birth- October 28, 1955
Place of Birth- Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Market Capitalisation- $ 234.82 Billion
Term of Office- 2006-2018
Indra Nooyi is a former chairman and chief executive officer (CEO) of PepsiCo and an Indian-American business executive. She was born in Chennai. Presently, she is a member of the Amazon and the International Cricket Council boards of directors. In 1974, Nooyi graduated from Madras Christian College of the University of Madras with a bachelor’s degree in physics, chemistry, and mathematics. In 1976, she completed a Post Graduate Program Diploma at the Indian Institute of Management in Calcutta.
Nooyi was accepted into Yale School of Management in 1978 and relocated to the United States of America (USA) in 1980, where she got a Master’s degree in Public and Private Management. Nooyi began her career as a product manager for Johnson & Johnson and Beardsell Ltd, a textile company. Nooyi joined PepsiCo in 1994 and was appointed CEO in 2006, succeeding Steven Reinemund as the company’s fifth CEO in its 44-year history. Indra
Nooyi became Pepsico’s CEO in 2006, and she remained in the post until August 2018, when she stepped down. She has consistently been ranked among the world’s top 100 most powerful women. In 2014, she was placed 13th on Forbes’ list of the world’s 100 most influential women, and in 2015, she was ranked second on Fortune’s list of the world’s most powerful women. She was named the second most powerful woman in business on Forbes’ list of The 19 Most Powerful Women in Business again in 2017.
Conclusion
A company’s CEO is crucial. When appointed as the CEO of a corporation, he or she oversees and controls the day-to-day operations of the organisation, as well as strategic planning and decision-making. The CEO is the individual who determines a company’s direction and is thus a respected and important asset to the organisation.
Silicon Valley CEOs of Indian ancestry are part of a four-million-strong minority community that is among the U.S.’s wealthiest and most educated. As a result, it feels especially good to be an Indian when you learn that the CEOs of such large corporations that shape the modern world are Indians.
