Laxman Narasimhan, the newly-appointed CEO of global coffee chain Starbucks, has moved up in the ever-expanding list of Indian-origin techies and businesspersons heading multinational global firms. 55-year-old Narasimhan will join beverage giant Starbucks as its Chief Executive Officer on October 1, after having stepped down as the CEO of Reckitt Benckiser – another global giant. An alumnus of the University of Pune’s College of Engineering and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton business school, Narasimhan earlier held a senior position at PepsiCo too. But Narasimhan is not the only one leading a global giant. Here are the other Indian-origin CEOs running some of the world’s biggest companies.
Leena Nair, CEO, Chanel
Leena Nair became the first woman and youngest CEO of Chanel in January. She started her career at Unilever in 1992 as a management trainee. In 2016, she became the first Asian and the youngest ever Chief Human Resources Officer of the company. She also served as a member of the company’s Leadership Executive. She has held various positions within the British government, including serving as a non-executive director for the business, energy, and industrial strategy department. Leena Nair holds a degree in engineering and management from Walchand College of Engineering and a degree in management from the Xavier School of Management.
Parag Agarwal, CEO, Twitter
Twitter named Parag Agrawal as its new CEO in November 2021 after founder Jack Dorsey stepped down. He was previously the company’s Chief Technology Officer. He is the youngest CEO of a tech company on Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500 company list. He was born in the state of Maharashtra and studied at the atomic energy central school in Mumbai. After finishing his B Tech degree in 2005 from IIT, Mumbai, he studied at Stanford University.
Sandeep Kataria, CEO, Bata
Bata India’s former CEO Sandeep Kataria became the first Indian to be appointed to the global role of a footwear company. Before becoming the CEO of Bata India in 2017, he had been a part of some of the world’s most prominent organisations such as Unilever, Vodafone, and Yum Brands. He has been directly involved in some of the most successful businesses in the world. Sandeep Kataria is an alumnus of IIT-Delhi and XLRI-Jamshedpur. He was a gold medallist of the 1993 PGDBM batch at XLRI.
Sundar Pichai, CEO, Google
Sundar Pichai became the CEO of Google in 2015. Before Google, he had been a part of various organisations such as McKinsey & Company as a management consultant, and Applied Materials in engineering. In 2004, he joined Google as one of its engineers. He gained a huge following due to the success of Chrome. After graduating from IIT Kharagpur, Pichai moved to the US for MS in engineering and materials science at Stanford University. He then went on to get an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School. He was a Palmer Scholar and a Siebel Scholar.
Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft
Starting as a young engineer at Microsoft in 1992, Satya Nadella became the company’s CEO in 2014. He led the development of the company’s various products, such as the Windows and Xbox Live platforms. After becoming the CEO, he introduced hackathons and reportedly worked on getting rid of short-sightedness and bureaucracy. He was unable to crack the entrance examinations for the Indian Institute of Technology on his first attempt. He then got a B.Sc degree in electronics and communication engineering in 1988. He studied at the University of Chicago and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Shantanu Narayen, CEO, Adobe
Shantanu Narayen became the CEO of Adobe in December 2007. Before becoming the CEO of the company, he had been the president and chief operating officer of the company. Before Adobe, Shantanu worked with a Silicon Valley start-up called Measurex Automation Systems and Apple. He was born in Hyderabad and studied at Osmania University. After completing his degree, he enrolled for postgraduate studies at Bowling Green State University and the University of California.
Arvind Krishnan, CEO, IBM
Arvind Krishnan has been the CEO of IBM since April 2020. He became the company’s chairman in January 2021. Before becoming the CEO of IBM, he worked at the company’s Thomas J. Watson Research Center. In 2015, he was promoted to the Senior Vice President position, and he was responsible for the company’s various divisions, including the cloud and cognitive software. In 2016, he led the company’s acquisition of Red Hat. Krishnan got his BTech degree from IIT Kharagpur. He then went to the U.I. Urbana-Champaign and got a Ph.D. in electrical engineering in 1991. He received alumni awards from both IIT Kanpur and the University of Illinois.
Raghu Raghuram, CEO, VMware
Raghu Raghuram was appointed to the position of CEO effective at VMware on June 1, 2021. He earlier held the position of chief operating officer for Products and Cloud Services at VMware. Raghuram was instrumental in the company’s growth, and led the development of its software-defined data center and cloud computing initiatives. He also played a role in the company’s M&A strategy. Raghuram went on to do his MBA from Wharton in 1994 after completing graduation from IIT-Bombay.
