From Google to Twitter to Microsoft, here's a list of Indian CEOs currently heading top global companies

Nov 30, 2021

By: Vaamanaa Sethi

Parag Agrawal — Twitter

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Bombay graduate Parag Agrawal was appointed as the new chief executive officer (CEO) of Twitter after founder Jack Dorsey stepped down on November 29. He joined Twitter in 2011 and was the chief technology officer before becoming the CEO.

Credit: Twitter

Sundar Pichai — Google

Pichai, is an IIT-Kharagpur alumnus and master’s degree holder in material science and engineering from Stanford. Before becoming the CEO of Google in 2015, he was appointed as the product chief by co-founder Larry Page. He was later on promoted as the CEO of the parent company of Google — Alphabet Inc., in December 2019.

Credit: Wikipedia

Satya Nadella — Microsoft

Nadella was appointed as the CEO of Microsoft in 2014. He attended Hyderabad Public School, Begumpet, and did electrical engineering from the Manipal Institute of Technology in Karnataka. After that, he did a master of science (MS) degree in computer science at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Credit: Wikipedia

Shantanu Narayen — Adobe Inc.

Born in Hyderabad, Narayen moved to the US to pursue his master’s degree in computer science from Ohio, after completing his graduation in electronics and communication engineering from University College of Engineering in Hyderabad. He was at a senior management position at Apple before joining Silicon Graphics and Adobe. In 2005, he was appointed as the CEO of Adobe.

Credit: Twitter

Sanjay Mehrotra — Micron Technology

He was the co-founder of SanDisk in 1988 and served as president and CEO from 2011 till 2016. In 2017, he was named as the CEO of Micron. At the age of 18, Mehrotra, who is a holder of more than 70 patents, was transferred from BITS Pilani to attend the University of California, Berkeley, where earned his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree in electrical engineering and computer science.

Credit: Micron

Laxman Narasimhan — Reckitt Benckiser

Narasimhan, who is currently the CEO of Reckitt Benckiser, had previously served as chief commercial officer (COO) at PepsiCo. He earned a degree in mechanical engineering from the College of Engineering Pune, Savitribai Phule Pune University and then he did MA in German and International Studies from The Lauder Institute at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also an MBA in Finance from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Credit: TOI

Nikesh Arora — Palo Alto Networks Inc

A former senior executive at Google and president of SoftBank Group (2014-2016), Arora took on the role of CEO and chairman at Palo Alto Networks in 2018. He completed his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from IIT Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi and later on, did his MBA from Northeastern University in Boston.

Credit: Twitter

Arvind Krishna — IBM

Krishna, who was born into a Telugu-speaking family, joined IBM in 1990. Later on, in 2015, he was promoted to senior vice president. He also led the building and expansion of new markets for IBM in artificial intelligence, cloud, quantum computing, and blockchain. He was then appointed IBM's CEO in January 2020, succeeding Ginni Rometty. Before moving to US for his PhD degree from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, he did bachelor of technology (B.Tech) in electrical engineering from IIT-Kanpur in 1985.

Credit: Wikipedia

Ajay Banga — MasterCard

Son of retired lieutenant-general, who is currently the Executive Chairman of MasterCard Banga completed his graduation in economics from St.Stephen’s College in Delhi University, followed by post graduation in management from IIM-Ahmedabad. He began his career with Nestle in 1981 and later joined PepsiCo. He was appointed as president and chief executive officer of MasterCard in 2010.

Credit: Wikipedia

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