top of page

9 reasons the Indian CEO keeps coming to the rescue

  • S. Mitra Kalita
  • Feb 4, 2020
  • 1 min read

IBM tapped Arvind Krishna as its next CEO last week. And this week WeWork confirmed it hired Sandeep Mathrani as its new chief executive.

They join a growing number of global CEOs of Indian origin, according to social media, news reports and online searching (incidentally, Google is run by an Indian).

Here's who I came up with:

  • Shantanu Narayen, Adobe

  • Sundar Pichai, Alphabet, the parent company of Google

  • Satya Narayana Nadella, Microsoft

  • Rajeev Suri, Nokia

  • Punit Renjen, Deloitte

  • Vasant "Vas" Narasimhan, Novartis

  • Ajaypal "Ajay" Singh Banga, Mastercard

  • Ivan Manuel Menezes, Diageo

  • Niraj S. Shah, Wayfair

  • Sanjay Mehrotra, Micron

  • George Kurian, NetApp

  • Nikesh Arora, Palo Alto Networks

  • Dinesh C. Paliwal, Harman International Industries

A disclaimer that this is hardly complete or exhaustive. Some are the children of Indian immigrants but I include them because (another disclaimer) I am, too, and can attest to inheriting habits and experiences from my parents' generation.

To be sure, there is a risk of reading into one group's success as a case of Indian exceptionalism, which I truly do not believe. Rather, a series of external factors have contributed to the rise of the Indian CEO, which says more about the state of corporate America, a globalized workplace, technological disruption and the leaders who might prevail.

 
 
 

Comments


© 2018 MAP Asia Pacific Limited  |  DISCLAIMER

MAP Asia Pacific Limited

Suite 809, 8/F., Brill Plaza,

84 To Kwa Wan Road,

Kowloon, Hong Kong

Tel: 27902006

Fax: 27902120

Email: info@mapasiapacific.com

bottom of page