Year-ender 2023: Satya Nadella, Sundar Pichai and 5 other Indian-origin CEOs who made headlines in 2023

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's much-talked-about coup by hiring OpenAI's Sam Altman shone the spotlight on how a good leader can make the best out of a difficult situation. The lesson in leadership was admired by global business leaders. Like Nadella, other Indian-origin CEOs made headlines in 2023, here's a breakdown of some of them.

Satya Nadella was appointed the CEO of Microsoft in 2014.

After OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was abruptly fired by the company board, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella pounced on the opportunity to bring him aboard. He announced that Altman and OpenAI co-founder Greg Brockman will be joining Microsoft to head a new advanced AI research team. Later, as events unfolded, Sam Altman was reinstated as the CEO of OpenAI. Responding to the development, Nadella told Bloomberg TV it doesn't matter where Altman ends up working — because "irrespective of where Sam is, he's working with Microsoft." The tech giant is an investor in OpenAI, pouring $10 billion into the AI startup.

Sundar Pichai addressed concerns regarding layoffs at Google.

Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai made headlines for the layoffs in the company and for the antitrust trial between Google and Fortnite developer Epic Games, which has accused the internet search giant of abusive, monopolistic practices via its app store. Pichai asserted that Google does not intentionally stifle competition when it came to the multiple rounds of layoffs in the company, Pichai stated, “Clearly it’s not the right way to do it. I think it’s something we could have done differently for sure."

Overall, the number of employees who have been laid off from Better.com by Vishal Garg in India and the United States has crossed 4000.

The Better.com CEO made headlines in 2021 by laying off 900 employees over a Zoom call. In 2022, the company gave its employees in India the option to quit voluntarily and accepted over 900 resignations. Continuing the trend, in 2023, Vishal Garg laid off its entire real estate team and shut down the unit, according to a report by TechCrunch. In an interview with the publication, Garg said he underwent a lot of leadership training to rebuild the trust within and outside the company.

Shantanu Narayen had a different take than Narayana Murthy when it came to work-life balance.

The Adobe CEO recently made headlines after the company shelved its $20 billion cash-and-stock deal for cloud-based designer platform Figma, stating that there was “no clear path” for approvals from antitrust regulators in the European Union and the UK. Shantanu Narayen also made news when he did not agree with Infosys founder Narayan Murthy that young Indians should work 70 hours a week for the sake of the country's development. “People should do what they want without taking the victim mentality --that I am being told what to do," he said.

Ajay Pal Banga also led Mastercard as its COO and CEO.

Indian-origin Ajay Banga made headlines earlier this year after being announced as the World Bank president. In May, the World Bank's 25-member executive board elected Banga to a five-year term as president. Earlier in his career, Banga also led Mastercard as its COO and CEO. In 2016, he was also conferred with the Padma Shri for his contribution to trade and industry.

Arvind Krishna is an alumnus of IIT Kanpur.

As employers and employees tussle with the return to office mandate,  IBM CEO Arvind Krishna made news after he issued a warning to his employees that remote work can hurt their career prospects, especially for managerial roles. The IIT Kanpur alumnus said he is not asking anyone to come back to the office now, but "We encourage you to come in, we expect you to come in, we want you to come in."

According to Elon Musk, Parag Agrawal lacked leadership qualities.

The former CEO of Twitter, now X, made headlines after Elon Musk released his autobiography. In it, Parag Agrawal's ex-boss said that he lacked leadership qualities. Musk revealed that he met Agrawal over dinner before he bought Twitter and concluded that he did not have "leadership quality". “He's a really nice guy. What Twitter needs is a fire-breathing dragon and Parag is not that,” Musk reportedly said after meeting with Agrawal.

Read more: Parag Agrawal, others sue Twitter for reimbursements worth over $1 million