Neal Mohan, who will replace Susan Wojcicki as the CEO of YouTube, is the latest addition to the ever-expanding list of Indian-origin executives leading global technology firms.
Here’s a list of Indian-origin CEOs at the helm of some of the biggest tech companies in the world.
Neal Mohan, YouTube
One of the early employees of Google, Susan Wojcicki, stepped down as CEO of the Alphabet-owned video streaming platform YouTube after spending 25 years with the tech major.
The company’s chief product officer, Neal Mohan, is set to take over. Indian-American Mohan was a close aide of Wojcicki for 15 years.
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He joined Google with the DoubleClick acquisition in 2007. He became YouTube’s Chief Product Officer in 2015. “Neal will be a terrific leader for YouTube,” Wojcicki said in a blog post.
Thank you, @SusanWojcicki. It’s been amazing to work with you over the years. You’ve built YouTube into an extraord… https://t.co/M1fEBQiNRj
— Neal Mohan (@nealmohan) 1676573682000
Sundar Pichai, Alphabet
Google in August 2015 appointed IIT Kharagpur alumni Sundar Pichai as the CEO. Pichai was only the third chief executive of the company after former CEO Eric Schmidt and cofounder Larry Page.
In December 2019, he became the CEO of Google’s parent company Alphabet.
Born in Tamil Nadu’s Madurai, Pichai joined Google in 2004 and made his way to the top.
Thomas Kurian, Google Cloud
Indian-American business executive Thomas Kurian has been the CEO of Google Cloud since 2019.
Kurian joined Google’s Cloud organization in November 2018 and worked on selling G Suite applications to enterprise clients.
Satya Nadella, Microsoft
Indian-American business executive Satya Nadella succeeded Steve Ballmer as CEO of Microsoft in 2014.
Nadella did bachelor’s in electrical engineering from the Manipal Institute of Technology in Karnataka in 1988 and worked with Sun Microsystems before joining Microsoft in 1992.
Nadella was the executive vice president of Microsoft’s cloud and enterprise group before becoming CEO.
Ravi Kumar S, Cognizant
After a 20-year stint at Indian IT major Infosys, Ravi Kumar S became the CEO of Cognizant in January 2023. He replaced Brian Humphries.
Cognizant had previously announced that Kumar would join the company as president, Cognizant America.
At Infosys, Kumar held various leadership roles, most recently serving as president from January 2016 through October 2022.
Anjali Sood, Vimeo
American businesswoman of Indian descent Anjali Sood was appointed as the CEO of the online video platform Vimeo in July 2017.
Sud, the daughter of Indian immigrants from Punjab, joined Vimeo in 2014 and served as general manager and head of marketing before being elevated to CEO.
Arvind Krishna, IBM
IBM in April 2020 appointed Indian-origin Arvind Krishna as CEO of the company. He took on the role of chairman in January 2021.
Born in Andhra Pradesh, Krishan got his BTech degree in electrical engineering from IIT, Kanpur.
He joined IBM in 1990 and held multiple positions before succeeding Ginni Rometty as CEO in 2020.
Amrapali Gan, OnlyFans
Indian-American businesswoman Amrapali Gan was appointed as the CEO of content subscription service OnlyFans in December 2021.
She joined the company in September 2020 as chief marketing and communications officer before succeeding founding CEO Tim Stokely.
Shantanu Narayen, Adobe
Hyderabad-born Shantanu Narayen has been Adobe’s chairman, president, and CEO since December 2007.
Narayen joined Adobe in 1998 as senior vice president of worldwide product development and was appointed president and chief operating officer in 2005.
In November 2007, Adobe announced that Bruce Chizen would step down as CEO effective December 1, 2007, to be replaced by Narayen.
Raj Subramaniam, FedEx
In March 2022, FedEx announced that Raj Subramaniam will replace founder Fred Smith as the president and CEO.
Subramaniam joined FedEx in 1991 and rose through the ranks to hold several management and marketing roles in Asia and the US.
Subramaniam was born in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. He graduated from IIT Bombay with a degree in chemical engineering.
Raghu Raghuram, VMware
American cloud computing and virtualization technology company VMware on May 12, 2021, announced that Raghu Raghuram would take over as CEO. Raghuram joined VMware in 2003 and held multiple leadership roles, including COO, products and cloud services.
Raghuram holds an MBA from the Wharton School of Business and a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the IIT, Bombay.
Nikesh Arora, Palo Alto Networks
Former Google executive, Nikesh Arora took on the role of CEO and chairman at Palo Alto Networks on June 1, 2018.
Born in Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, Arora went on to graduate from IIT, BHU in Varanasi with a degree in electrical engineering.
George Kurian, NetApp
Thomas Kurian’s identical twin brother George Kurian was made the CEO of NetApp in 2015. Kurian joined NetApp in 2011 as senior vice president of its storage solutions group.
His previous roles include vice president at Akamai Technologies, management consulting at McKinsey & Company, and leading software engineering and product management teams at Oracle Corporation.
Sanjay Mehrotra, Micron Technology
Cofounder of SanDisk, Sanjay Mehrotra was named CEO of Micron Technology in May 2017, after Mark Durcan announced his retirement.
Mehrotra cofounded SanDisk in 1988 and served as president and CEO from 2011 until 2016 when it was acquired by Western Digital.
Jayshree Ullal, Arista Networks
Cloud networking company Arista Networks appointed Indian-American Jayshree Ullal as CEO and president of the company. Before Arista, Ullal spent over 15 years working with Cisco.
