There are over 1.3 billion people living in India, making it the world’s second most populous country. The fact that the majority of its citizens are living in poverty, has diverted attention from the fast-rising numbers of Indians leading global giant companies around the world.
There are countless Indians who have made a name for themselves in the world of Business, Tech, Education, Politics, and Medicine.
They lead some of the biggest companies in the world and have had an immense impact on the economy.
Apart from Indian Billionaire Mukesh Ambani, very little is known about other high-profile Indians who control major sectors in the world.
With the recent appointment of Rishi Sunak as UK Prime Minister, Dockaysworld has decided to throw a spotlight on silent Indians controlling some of the biggest companies in the world.
This article highlights Top 10 Indians taking the leading horn in gaint institutions globally.
1. Sundar Pichai (Google CEO)
Sundar Pichai is an Indian born in Tamil Nadu. He studied engineering at IIT Kharagpur. He was appointed as the CEO of Google in August 2015 and has since led Google through some big changes.
Pichai launched the Chrome OS and Chromebook in 2011, headed the Android operating system in 2013, and became the leader of all products and engineering at Google by 2014
In January 2016, he became head of Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc., which includes Google Search and other products. Google is the most popular search engine on the internet, so it should come as no surprise that its CEO, Sundar Pichai, is one of the most powerful people in the world.
2. Satya Nadella (Microsoft CEO)
Satya Nadella is an Indian-born American. On February 4, 2014, Nadella became CEO of Microsoft, the third person to hold the office in the company’s nearly 40-year history, after co-founders Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer.
Before this, he was the executive vice president of Microsoft’s Cloud and Online Services division. He has also held various other positions at Microsoft, including senior vice president of the company’s Server and Tools division.
Satya Nadella holds a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Texas at Austin.
3. Shantanu Narayen (Adobe CEO)
Shantanu Narayen is an Indian-American born business executive. He is the CEO of Adobe, one of the leading software companies in the world. With a net worth of $1.5 billion, Narayen is one of India’s wealthiest men and his company has made a significant impact on the global software industry.
Adobe has a wide range of products that are used by businesses to create and distribute digital content. He received his undergraduate degree in engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and his MBA from Stanford Business School.
Narayanan joined Adobe in 1998 and has since led the company through several successful acquisitions and product launches. He is also a member of the board of directors for Intel and eBay.
4. Parag Agrawal (Twitter CEO)
Parag Agrawal was born in Ajmer, Rajasthan, India. He is the CEO of Twitter. He has been with the company for years and has been instrumental in its growth. Before Twitter, Agrawal was a product manager at Google, working on products like Gmail and YouTube.
Before that, he worked as a software engineer at Amazon. Agrawal is also an advisor to several startups and has spoken at several tech conferences. In his spare time, he likes to play tennis and read non-fiction books. The CEO of Twitter is a giant office in the social media community.
5. Ajay Banga (Mastercard CEO)
Ajay Banga is an Indian-born businessman who became CEO of Mastercard in the year 2010. He has been with the company since 2006 and has led it through some tough times, including the global financial crisis.
Under his leadership, Mastercard has grown into one of the world’s largest payment networks, with more than 2 billion customer transactions each year.
Ajay Banga is also a member of the board of directors for several other major companies, including PepsiCo and General Atlantic.
6. Indra Nooyi (Pepsi CEO)
Indra Nooyi is an Indian-born American businesswoman. Nooyi assumed the title of CEO in October 2006 and the next year became chairman of the board as well. She has led the company since 2006 and under her leadership, Pepsi has grown into one of the world’s largest beverage companies.
Before joining Pepsi, Nooyi was the president and CEO of the advertising firm McCann Erickson. During her time at McCann, Nooyi helped lead the company to major successes, including an achievement for which she was awarded an Emmy Award for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Advertising.
Before that, she held various positions at Unilever, including president of Dove soap and supervisor of Axe deodorant.
7. Vivek Sankaran (Albertsons CEO)
Born and raised in India, Albertsons CEO Vivek Sankaran has come a long way from his humble beginnings as a photocopier repairman. Vivek Sankaran is the CEO of Albertsons, one of the largest supermarket chains in the United States. He is also a member of the Board of Directors for PepsiCo and Costco.
Before joining Albertsons, Vivek was the President and Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Safeway, where he led the company’s global operations.
Vivek has also held executive positions at Kroger, Kellogg’s, Allied Van Lines, and Continental Airlines.
8. Jayant Sinha (NetApp CEO)
Jayant Sinha is an Indian entrepreneur and the founder and CEO of NetApp, one of the world’s leading providers of data storage, management, and security solutions. Before founding NetApp in 1997, Sinha worked as a senior scientist at IBM Research where he helped develop the company’s first big data platform.
Under Sinha’s leadership, NetApp has grown from a small startup into one of the world’s leading technology companies, with annual revenues of more than $20 billion.
In addition to his role as CEO, Sinha also serves on the board of directors for several Fortune 500 companies.
With over two decades of experience in the tech industry, Sinha knows exactly what it takes to run a successful company.
He is known for his innovative approach to product development, his focus on customer satisfaction, and his dedication to employee retention.
9. Rajeev Suri (Nokia CEO)
Rajeev Suri was born on October 15th, 1966 in Pune, Maharashtra, India. Rajeev holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Pune University.
He started his career with Siemens AG in Germany before moving to Nokia in 1997. Rajeev has been the CEO of Nokia from April 1st, 2011 till July 2022
He has led the company through several milestones including the launch of the Lumia phone range and its alliance with Microsoft.
10. Rishi Sunak (UK Prime Minister)
The 10th Profile on our listing isn’t a typical businessman like the prior listed. Rather, Rishi Sunak is an Indian-British politician. Mr. Sunak was born in Southampton, where his father was a GP and his mother ran a pharmacy. He went to the boarding school Winchester College as a teenager, then studied at Oxford and Stanford University.
Mr. Sunak was elected as an MP in 2015 – for Richmond in North Yorkshire. Subsequently, he was made Finance Minister in February 2020 under Boris Johnson. On the 25th of October 2022, he was appointed as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
Conclusion
Globally, Indians are in every private and public sector of the economy, ranging from technology, education, health, politics among others. Some of them started with a small inheritance, while others have built their businesses from the ground up.
Overall, many successful Indian-owned companies make up part of the global business landscape. These companies have helped to make India one of the leading economies in terms of GDP growth rates and overall economic stability.
Cheers!
