Parag Agrawal among top 10 Indian-origin CEOs heading world's biggest tech firms; see list

At the outset of Parag Agrawal being named as the new Twitter CEO, after incumbent Jack Dorsey announced to part ways with the micro-blogging site, India has prominently climbed up the corporate ladders globally. With the latest addition to the list of Indians at the forefront of global giants namely Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella amongst others, here's a list of ten Indian-origin CEOs with outright brilliant minds who are scripting history by heading some of the world's biggest companies. 

Indian-origin CEOs heading tech giants globally

• Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google LLC & Alphabet INC

Pichai Sundararajan, popularly known as Sundar Pichai, is an Indian-American chief executive officer of Alphabet Inc. and its subsidiary Google. The 49-year-old is an alumnus of the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur and Stanford University, California. Having started his career with Google in 2004, the successor to Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Pichai was inducted as the CEO on August 10, 2015. Previously, a pioneer in the development of the Chrome browser and subsequently the Senior Vice President of the same in 2012, he became the Chief of products for their dominant Android Operating System. 

• Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft

Hyderabad born Satya Nadella is the executive Chairman and CEO of Microsoft by succeeding Steve Ballmer in 2014 as the CEO and John W Thompson in 2021 as Chairman. A resident of Washington, Nadella achieved his electrical engineering degree from Mangalore University and masters from the University of Wisconsin. Later, he went ahead to achieve a master's in business management from the University of Chicago. 

Nadella joined Microsoft in the year 1992 and came to be known for developing iconic products, paving his way to lead the firm as the Vice President of Microsoft's Cloud and Enterprise group. In February 2014, the former Sun Microsystems employee shifted his gear to be inducted as the CEO of Microsoft. Notably, he is a member of the board of trustees of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. 

• Parag Agrawal, CEO of Twitter

Parag Agarwal, an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay, had joined Twitter in 2011 and worked his way to becoming the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) by 2018. He is also an alumnus of Stanford University where he studied Computer Science and earned a PhD in Philosophy. Besides, the new Twitter CEO has also given his services to companies like Microsoft and AT&T.

Agrawal joined Twitter as an Ads Engineer in the month of October 2011 and gradually moved up to hold the title, 'Distinguished Software Engineer.' In 2018, he was appointed as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO). He was responsible for the advancements in Artificial Intelligence (AI). 

• Shantanu Narayen, CEO of Adobe Inc. 

Hailing from Hyderabad, Narayen has been the CEO and Chairman of Adobe Inc. since 2007. An alumnus of the Osmania University in Hyderabad, he received an MBA degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1993. In 1986, Narayen had also received a master's degree in computer science from Bowling Green State University in Ohio. Having started his career in 1986 at a Silicon Valley start-up Measurex Automation System, he succeeded Bruce Chizen to become effective CEO on December 1, 2007, after associating with Adobe in 1998 as senior Vice President of worldwide product development. 

• Jayshree Ullal, CEO of Arista Networks

The 60-year-old American billionaire businesswoman is the president and CEO of a cloud networking entity, Arista Network. Born in London and having been raised in Delhi, Ullal completed her schooling in India and eventually attended San Francisco State University where he received a BS in electrical engineering. In October 2008, she was named Ullal CEO & President of Arista Networks and was even named one of Barron's 'World's Best CEOs in 2018' and one of Fortune's 'Top 20 Business Persons in 2019'. 

• Rangarajan Raghuram, CEO of VMware

Rangarajan Raghuram was named the CEO of VMWare in 2021, after having joined the company in 2003. The renowned cloud leader and technologist succeeded CEO Pat Gelsinger after recording multiple product management and marketing roles. An alumnus of IIT Bombay (electrical engineering), he completed his MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in the year 1996. ​​​​​​​

• Arvind Krishna, CEO of IBM 

Krishna is an alumnus of IIT, Kanpur and is associated with IBM for over two decades now. He has completed his PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and replaced Virginia Rometty as the CEO on April 6, 2020. 

• Ajaypal Singh Banga, CEO of MasterCard

A pioneer for MasterCard since the 1990s, Banga is currently the executive chairman of MasterCard, having previously served as CEO until December 2020. Former Chairman of US-India Business Council, 62-year-old Banga hails from Jalandhar, Punjab and was born in Pune in Maharashtra where his father served in the Indian Army. An alumnus of Hyderabad Public School in Begumpet, Banga attained his graduation degree from St Stephen's College of Delhi University followed by an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.​​​​​​​

• Anjali Sud, CEO of Vimeo, online video platform

​​​​​​​An American businesswoman of Indian descent, the 38-year-old has been designated as Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum became the CEO in 2017 after having served as the General  Manager and head of marketing for Adobe. Born in Michigan to Indian immigrants, she is a graduate of Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a finance and management degree and holds an MBA qualification from Harvard Business School. 

• Nikesh Arora, CEO of Palo Alto Networks

The 53-year-old was a former senior executive at Google and has also served as the president of SoftBank Group until 2016. Inducted as the CEO of Palo Alto Networks on June 1, 2018, Arora was recorded as the world's highest-paid executive in the last two years as the head of SoftBank's operations. Born to an Indian Air Force officer, he is a graduate from IIT (BHU) in Varanasi with a Bachelor of Technology degree in electrical engineering in 1989. Also, he holds a degree from Boston College and an MBA from Northeastern University.