List of Top Indian Origin CEOs in American Companies
After his elevation as the CEO of Twitter, Parag Agrawal has joined the growing power club of Indian-origin executives helming US-based global multinationals. Twitter's outgoing CEO Dorsey announced on Monday that 37-year old Agrawal, an IIT Mumbai and Stanford University alumnus, will be the company's new chief executive as he stepped down after 16 years at the company that he co-founded and helmed.
However, not just Agrawal, but over a dozen people of Indian-origin and Indian-born executives are helming the global multinationals. Let's take a look at the list of top five companies in which Indian-origin people are currently occupying the top positions.
Sundar Pichai: CEO, Google LLC & Alphabet INC
Pichai Sundararajan is the chief executive officer (CEO) of Alphabet Inc. and its subsidiary Google. Born on 10 June 1972, he earned his degree from IIT Kharagpur in metallurgical engineering and attained an MS from Stanford University in materials science and engineering and further attained an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, where he was named a Siebel Scholar and a Palmer Scholar, respectively.
He joined Google in 2004, became CEO in 2015 and was made the CEO of Alphabet, Google's parent company in 2020.
Arvind Krishna - CEO, IBM Group
Arvind
Krishna
is
an
Indian-American
business
executive
serving
as
the
Chairman
and
CEO
of
IBM.
Born
into
a
Telugu-speaking
family
in
West
Godavari
District
in
Andhra
Pradesh
in
1962,
his
father,
Major
General
Vinod
Krishna,
was
an
army
officer
who
worked
for
the
Indian
Army
and
his
mother,
Aarathi
Krishna,
worked
for
the
welfare
of
Army
widows.
Krishna attained a B-Tech degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur in 1985 and subsequently moved to the United States to earn a PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1991. Krishna began his career at IBM in 1990, at IBM's Thomas J and he has been the CEO of IBM since April 2020 and took on the role of Chairman in January 2021.
Satya Nadella - CEO, Microsoft
Satyanarayana Nadella is an Indian-born American business executive, chairman and CEO of Microsoft. Before becoming CEO, he was the executive vice president of Microsoft's cloud and enterprise group, responsible for building and running the company's computing platforms.
Nadella was born in Hyderabad of present-day Telangana, India into a Telugu-speaking Hindu family. His mother Prabhavati was a Sanskrit lecturer and his father, Bukkapuram Nadella Yugandhar, was an Indian Administrative Service officer of the 1962 batch.
Nadella received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from the Manipal Institute of Technology in Karnataka in 1988 and studied an MS in computer science at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Shantanu Narayen - CEO, Adobe Inc.
Shantanu Narayen has been the chairman, president, and chief executive officer (CEO) of Adobe Inc. since December 2007. He was the company's president and chief operating officer for two years.
Born on May 27, 1963, in Hyderabad, Narayen earned a bachelor's degree in electronics and communication engineering from University College of Engineering, Osmania University in Hyderabad, before moving to the United States for higher studies. He worked in Apple, Silicon Graphics and co-founded Pictra Inc before joining Adobe 1998 as senior vice president.
Ajaypal Singh Banga - CEO, Mastercard
Ajaypal Singh Banga is currently executive chairman of Mastercard, having previously served as president and chief executive officer (CEO) of the company from July 2010 until December 31, 2020. He will retire from this position at the end of 2021.
Banga, who is originally from Jalandhar, Punjab, was born on November 10, 1959 in Khadki, Pune, Maharashtra. He 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 started his business career with Nestlé in 1981. He later joined PepsiCo and was involved in the launch of its international fast-food franchises in India as the economy liberalized. In 2010, he became the president and chief executive officer of Mastercard.