Eight Indian-origin CEOs leading tech giants in the US

New Delhi: Indian-origin super brains, many of whom have studied at the premier Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and other prominent tech institutions in the country, are now heading global technology companies.

Indian-American Parag Agrawal was appointed the new CEO of the microblogging platform after Jack Dorsey stepped down as CEO of Twitter on Monday. Several other big technology companies are being run by CEOs who are either Indian or of Indian origin, and Agrawal is the latest addition to the list.

Here’s the list of eight Indian-origin CEOs who are currently heading top US tech companies.

Parag Agrawal

Parag Agrawal will be the new chief executive officer (CEO) of Twitter. Agarwal will also be a member of the Twitter board of directors following the resignation of Jack Dorsey. Parag holds a Ph.D. in computer science from Stanford University and a bachelor’s degree in computer science and engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay.

Satya Nadella

Satya Nadella has been the CEO of Microsoft since 2014. He was the third CEO of Microsoft after Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer and has been in the company since 1992.

Nadella was born in Hyderabad, Telangana, and received his bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the Manipal Institute of Technology in Karnataka, and MS in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Later, Nadella received an MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business.

Nikesh Arora

Palo Alto Networks has had Nikesh Arora as the CEO since 2018. Arora has worked in companies like Google and SoftBank. He has served as the vice-chairman of SoftBank Corp. and CEO of SoftBank Internet and Media, Inc. (SIMI).

Arora has a bachelor’s degree from the Institute of Technology at Banaras Hindu University, an MBA from Northeastern University, and an MSc from Boston College.

Arvind Krishna

Indian-origin Arvind Krishna joined computer hardware company IBM in the 1990s. He was appointed as IBM’s CEO in January 2020, succeeding Ginni Rometty.

From holding a General Manager role in the Information management software and systems and technology group of IBM, then serving as senior vice president IBM Research and later as senior vice president of IBM’s cloud and cognitive software division, Krishna has been a pioneer for the company’s building and expansion.

Krishna has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from IIT Kanpur and did his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois.

Krishna has a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from IIT Kanpur and did his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois.

Sundar Pichai

Google CEO Sundar Pichai was born in Tamil Nadu capital Chennai and grew up in the city.

Pichai received a B. Tech from the Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur and holds an MS in Engineering and Materials Science from Stanford University and an MBA from the Wharton School. He has been heading Google since 2015.

Shantanu Narayen

Hyderabad-born Shantanu Narayen is the CEO of Adobe Inc. since 2007, leading the company’s transformation, moving its creative and digital document software franchises.

Before joining Adobe in 1998 as senior vice-president of worldwide product development, Narayen worked with Silicon Valley start-up Measurex Automation Systems in 1986 and later moved to Apple from 1989 to 1995. In 1996 he co-founded Pictra Inc., a company that pioneered the concept of digital photo sharing over the internet.

Narayen earned a bachelor’s degree in electronics and communication engineering from the University College of Engineering, Osmania University in Hyderabad. He did a master’s in computer science from Bowling Green State University in Ohio. He later received an MBA from the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley.

Jayshree Ullal

Billionaire businesswoman Jayshree Ullal is president and CEO of Arista Networks, a cloud networking major. She was ranked among the top-5′ most influential people’ in networking by Forbes magazine.

Ullal has been the CEO since 2008. The executive had earlier worked with AMD, Cisco, and Fairchild Semiconductor. Ullal did a BS in electrical engineering from the San Francisco State University and did a master’s from the Santa Clara University in engineering management.

Anjali Sud

US-born Anjali Sud is the CEO of Vimeo, the online video platform. Revathi Advaithi, who was featured in the ‘Most powerful women’ list of Fortune in 2019 and 2020, is CEO of Flex.

Sud has been with the company since 2014 and had joined as the Head of Global Marketing. Sud has graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a BSc in Finance and Management and did her MBA from Harvard Business School in 2011.

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk took to Twitter on Monday to praise Indian talent and said greatly it benefits the United States. Musk tweeted, “USA benefits greatly from Indian talent!”

Musk was responding to a tweet by Patrick Collison, CEO, Stripe, the world’s third-largest unicorn.

(_Vinayak Barot)