Chanel's new boss Leena Nair joins the big league of Indian-origin CEOs
Leena Nair has now joined the ranks of Agrawal, Pichai, Nadella- Indians helming global companies. Here's a quick look at Indian-origin persons who are leading some of the top companies in the world.
Leena Nair | Unilever's first female, first Asian and youngest ever Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) is now the new CEO of Chanel. Nair joined Unilever as a management trainee in 1992 and spent 30 years of her professional life in the company. Along with being chief of human resources, she was also a member of Unilever's executive committee. She's a gold medalist from XLRI, Jamshedpur and is counted among Fortune India's Most Powerful Women 2021.
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Parag Agrawal - chief executive officer (CEO) of Twitter. He holds a PhD in computer science from Stanford University and a bachelor's degree in computer science and engineering from Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay.
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Sundar Pichai | CEO, Alphabet | Google CEO Sundar Pichai was born in Tamil Nadu capital Chennia 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.
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Satya Nadella, who was named the chairman of Microsoft on June 16, was born in Hyderabad on August 19, 1967. He graduated from Manipal Institute of Technology, Karnataka in 1988 as an electrical engineer. He then earned his master’s degree in Computer Science at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, the US in 1990 and started his career at Sun Microsystems. (Image: Reuters)
Shantanu Narayen | CEO, Adobe | Hyderabad-born Shantanu Narayen is the CEO of Adobe Inc. since 2007, leading the transformation of the company, 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.
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Arvind Krishna | Indian-origin Krishna, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, joined computer hardware company IBM in 1990s. He was appointed as IBM’s CEO in January 2020, succeeding Ginni Rometty. From holding a General Manager role in 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. (Image: Reuters)
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Nikesh Arora - chief executive officer and chairman of Palo Alto Networks. He has served as the vice chairman of SoftBank Corp. and CEO of SoftBank Internet and Media, Inc. (SIMI). He graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Varanasi in 1989, with a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering. (Image: Reuters)
