How Indians are Running the Top Companies of the World?

India has consistently shown that it is the ancestor of some of the world’s brightest brains. India and Indian blood have gone on to run some of the most successful businesses and companies worldwide, from tech geeks making their name known throughout Silicon Valley to tycoons who head some of the most renowned conglomerates. 

10 CEOs of Indian Origin Run the World’s Best Companies

Many of the powerful people in the world today are descendants of India. Here is a list of 10 CEOs with Indian ancestry who are currently leading some of the most influential businesses in the world.

Sundar Pichai (Alphabet)

Every time the subject of CEOs of multinational firms of Indian descent is brought up, Sundar Pichai’s name immediately comes to mind as being in a class by himself. 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. After shifting to the US, he earned an M.S. in materials science and engineering from Stanford University and then went on to earn an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was recognised as a Siebel Scholar and a Palmer Scholar, respectively. 

Satya Nadella (Microsoft)

Satya Nadella, a well-known figure in Silicon Valley, earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering in 1988 from Karnataka’s Manipal Institute of Technology. After that, Nadella relocated to the United States to pursue a master’s degree in computer science at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he graduated in 1990. He subsequently earned an MBA in 1997 from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. With his appointment as Microsoft’s Executive Chairman and CEO in 2014, Satya Nadella joined the group of notable CEOs of Indian descent.

Parag Agrawal (Twitter)

Parag Agrawal, one of the most recent entrants to the list, is an IIT Bombay graduate with a Bachelor of Technology in computer science and engineering. He attended Stanford University to pursue PhD in computer science. After Jack Dorsey, the company’s founder, resigned, Parag Agrawal was named as the new CEO of Twitter. 

Leena Nair (Chanel)

Leena Nair, who became the first female and youngest CEO of Chanel recently, is one of the most recent CEOs of Indian descent to make a significant impact. Former chief human resource officer of Unilever, Leena Nair is a Walchand College of Engineering and XLRI-Xavier School of Management alumnus.

Arvind Krishna (IBM)

Arvind Krishna, an IIT Kanpur alumni, completed his graduation in Btech electrical engineering. He attended the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to earn PhD in electrical engineering. In April 2020, he was named CEO of IBM, and in January 2021, he was named Chairman as well.

Shantanu Narayen (Adobe Inc)

Born in Hyderabad, Shantanu Narayen studied Btech in electronics and communication engineering at Osmania University.  he went to Bowling Green State University and the University of California to complete his master’s in computer science and MBA  respectively. Before being named CEO in December 2007, Shantanu Narayen was president and chief operating officer of Adobe Inc.

Sanjay Mehrotra (Micron Technologies)

Sanjay Mehrotra, a native of Kanpur, transferred from BITS Pilani to the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees.  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)

An alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, BHU, Nikesh Arora pursued a master’s degree from Boston College and an MBA from Northeastern University. In June 2018, Palo Alto Networks named Nikesh Arora as its CEO and chairman.

Indra Nooyi, Pepsico

Born in Chennai, Indra Nooyi attended the University of Madras to receive bachelor’s degrees in physics, chemistry and mathematics. She pursued PG Diploma from the Indian Institute of Management, and a master’s degree in public and private management from Yale University. Indra Nooyi was appointed as PepsiCo’s fifth CEO in 2006 and held the role until August 2018, when she announced her resignation.

Ajaypal Singh Banga (Mastercard)

Ajaypal Singh Banga graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree in Economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University followed by PGP in Management (equivalent to MBA) from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. 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.

Also Read: 

• Top Great Leaders of the World
• Crack the Code on How to Become an Entrepreneur

Indian-origin CEO appointments at the most venerable corporations in the world are now an unstoppable trend. In international boardrooms, they are seen as nearly “safe” leadership bets.

To know more about such interesting updates, check out the What Can We Learn From The Great Personalities? at Leverage Edu.