India has over the years produced some of the best business leaders in the world. And in recent times, their business acumen has put them at the helm of some of the top companies around the globe.
As the year 2017 draws to a close, International Business Times, India, takes a look at the top 10 Indian-origin CEOs who have climbed the corporate ladder and are steering their firms to greater glory:
1) Sanjay Jha: GlobalFoundries
- Sanjay Jha is of Indian origin and the current CEO of GlobalFoundries. It is a semiconductor maker headquartered in California in the US.
- Before joining this firm he was the CEO of Motorola Mobility.
- He also served as the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Qualcomm.
- Under his guidance, the company recently expanded its business to the automotive chip market.
2) Ajay Banga: MasterCard
- Ajaypal Singh Banga — aka Ajay Banga — is an Indian-American business executive.
- He is the current president and CEO of MasterCard.
- He is also a chairman of the US-India Business Council (USIBC), representing more than 300 of the largest international companies investing in India.
- Banga has been ranked as the 6th most influential Business Person of the Year by Fortune and stands at the 40th position on the Harvard Business Review's best-performing CEOs in the world 2017 list.
3) Rakesh Kapoor: Reckitt Benckiser
- Rakesh Kapoor is an Indian businessman and the current CEO of Reckitt Benckiser, which is a consumer goods company headquartered in England.
- Before becoming the CEO, he served in various roles in the company like regional sales manager and general manager.
- Kapoor is also working on restructuring the business strategies for leading the consumer health market.
4) Adobe Systems: Shantanu Narayen
- Shantanu Narayen is an Indian-American business executive and CEO of Adobe Systems.
- Before becoming the CEO of the company he also served as the president and chief operating officer.
- He is a board member of Pfizer and US-India Business Council and was named one of the world's best CEOs by Barron's magazine in 2016 and 2017.
5) Indra Nooyi: PepsiCo
- Indra Nooyi is an Indian-American business executive and the current Chairperson and CEO of PepsiCo.
- She is also ranked among the World's 100 Most Powerful Women.
- Nooyi is helping the company focus more on delivering healthier and more nutritious products to consumers.
6) Sundar Pichai: Google
- Pichai Sundararajan, aka Sundar Pichai, is an Indian-American business executive.
- He is currently the CEO of Google.
- Previously, he worked in management consulting at McKinsey & Company.
- Recently, Pichai made a strong case for the search giant's return to China, pointing out that it will help Chinese companies gain global access.
7) Satya Nadella: Microsoft
- Satya Narayana Nadella is the current CEO of Microsoft.
- Before becoming the CEO, Nadella was the Executive Vice-President of Microsoft's cloud and enterprise group.
- He now aims to reshape Microsoft culture with a focus on empathy and push for the cultural shift, and largely work on Artificial Intelligence (AI).
8) Dinesh Paliwal: Harman International Industries
- Dinesh Paliwal is currently the President and CEO of Harman International Industries, which is one of the leading providers of autonomous driving compute platform and audio systems for automobiles.
- Paliwal had earlier served as the Chairman of the US National Foreign Trade Council.
- The acquisition of Harman by Samsung in March this year was one of the biggest deals at the intersection of the automobile and the audio industry. As CEO of Harman International Corp, Paliwal was at the forefront of this deal, which can be termed a game-changer in the industry.
- He serves on the board of directors of Bristol-Myers Squibb and The Raytheon Company. Prior to Harman, Paliwal was president of ABB Ltd, Switzerland.
9) Rajeev Suri: Nokia
- Rajeev Suri is an Indian business executive and the CEO of Nokia.
- He is also at present the United Nations Broadband Commissioner.
- Suri at present is trying to help Nokia re-establish its brand in the mobile phone market, as it lost its edge a few years ago due to sturdy competition from other smartphone-makers.
10) Francisco D'Souza: Cognizant
- D'Souza is a person of Indian origin who was born in Nairobi, Kenya.
- He is at present the CEO of Cognizant.
- D'Souza was also a part of the team that founded the NASDAQ-100 company in 1994.
- He has been recently named a Fortune Businessperson of the Year for 2017.
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