The dominance of Indian-origin CEOs in global technology companies has become increasingly apparent, with the recent appointment of Neal Mohan as the CEO of YouTube.
Mohan will take over from Susan Wojcicki, one of the early employees of YouTube, who will be stepping down from her role as CEO.
Mohan, a Stanford graduate, has been the Chief Product Officer at YouTube since 2015. He played a significant role in the launch of several of Google’s advertising products, including AdWords, AdSense, and DoubleClick.
Let’s take a look at some of the other best-known Indian-origin CEOs at the helm of global tech companies.
1 – Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google LLC and Alphabet Inc., was born in Madurai and is a graduate of IIT Kharagpur. He started his career with Google in 2004 and became the CEO in 2015. In 2019, he was appointed the CEO of Alphabet Inc., the parent company of Google.
2 – Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, was responsible for building and running Microsoft’s cloud-computing platforms. Born in Hyderabad, Nadella has a BE from Manipal Institute of Technology and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He became the CEO of Microsoft in 2014, succeeding Steve Ballmer. In 2021, he also became the Chairman of Microsoft.
3 – Arvind Krishna, the CEO of IBM Group, is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. He has been with IBM for over two decades and replaced Virginia Rometty as CEO in January 2020.
4 – Shantanu Narayen, the CEO of Adobe Inc., was born in Hyderabad and started his career at Apple. He joined Adobe in 1998 and was promoted to CEO in December 2007 at the age of 45.
5 – George Kurian, born in Kottayam district of Kerala and educated at IIT Madras, became the Chairman and CEO of NetApp in June 2015. He also served in various senior roles at Oracle Corporation. Meanwhile, his twin brother Thomas serves as the CEO of Google Cloud.
The achievements of these CEOs reflect the growing influence of Indian-origin leaders in the global technology industry. They have not only led some of the most innovative companies in the world but have also proven what one can achieve with strong determination and competence.
PNN