Indian Origin CEO's of Big Fat Companies

Pichai Sundararajan commonly known as Sundar Pichai was appointed as the CEO of Google on August 10, 2015. He hails from Chennai and is an IIT Kharagpur alumnus. He completed his MBA at Wharton University where he was awarded titles such as Siebel Scholar and Palmer Scholar. Before joining Google as head of product management, he worked with management consulting firm McKinsey & Co.

Hailing from Hyderabad, Narayen is chairman, president and CEO of Adobe. He joined the company in 1998. In 2005, he was appointed as the chief operating officer (COO). Two years later he was appointed as the CEO. Under his leadership, Adobe has successfully worked on moving its popular creative software brands from desktop to cloud. It was under his leadership that Adobe went on to become a Fortune 500 company by the year 2018. In fact, he was listed as one of the world’s best CEOs in 2016 and 2017 by Barron’s magazine. This year, he also received the Padma Shri from President Ram Nath Kovind.

When people think of a tech giant or software giant, Microsoft is the first company that comes to mind. Founded by Bill Gates, Microsoft has changed the software industry like no other. Satya Narayana Nadella was born in Hyderabad. He did his bachelor’s in engineering and specialised in Electronics and Communication from Manipal Institute of Technology. He also holds a masters degree in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee and in addition, an MBA degree from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Ajay Banga is the president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Mastercard. Born in Khadki, a town near Pune, Ajay served as a member of President Obama’s Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity. He is a graduate of Delhi University and the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. Prior to Mastercard, Ajay served as chief executive officer of Citigroup Asia Pacific.

Raised in Delhi, Rajeev Suri is an Indian-Singaporean who is the CEO of Nokia. Prior to this, he was the CEO of Nokia Solutions and Networks. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Electronics and Communications Engineering from Manipal Institute of Technology. He was born in 1967 in India and later became a Singaporean citizen. He was named Finland's "Business Leader of the Year 2017" by Kauppalehti.

Parag Agrawal was named the new CEO of Twitter after co-founder Jack Dorsey stepped down from his post. Parag is married to Vineeta, who holds a BS in biophysics from Stanford University, and MD and PhD degrees from Harvard Medical School/MIT.