The announcement of Anil Chakravarthy taking the helm at software giant Adobe puts the spotlight back on a decisive trend: Indian-educated executives steering the global corporate order.
From Big Tech stalwarts like Microsoft and Alphabet to legacy conglomerates across logistics and consumer goods, here is a look at the Indian-origin C-suite leaders heading the world’s biggest companies:
Anil Chakravarthy | Adobe (CEO-Designate)
Anil Chakravarthy has been appointed CEO-designate of Adobe. An IIT Varanasi (BHU) graduate with an MS and PhD from MIT, he will steer the creative and cloud software giant into its next phase of growth.
“I am deeply honoured to have been chosen to lead Adobe during this pivotal moment. I’m energised by the opportunity to fuel growth and drive Adobe’s leadership in the next era of agentic software for creativity, productivity and customer experience…” Chakravarthy said about his new role.
Chakravarthy joined Adobe in January 2020 as executive vice president and general manager of its Digital Experience business. By September 2020, he took charge of worldwide field operations, leading enterprise sales across Adobe’s creative and productivity portfolios. He was elevated to President of Digital Experience and worldwide field operations in December 2021.
Under his watch, Adobe cemented its lead in customer experience orchestration by rolling out AI-driven products such as Adobe CX Enterprise, GenStudio, Brand Visibility, and CX Enterprise Coworker. He also steered the scaling of the Adobe Experience Platform and championed the strategic acquisitions and integration of Workfront and Semrush.
Before Adobe, Chakravarthy served as CEO of enterprise cloud data leader Informatica for four years, a role he first assumed in 2013. His three-decade industry career also includes senior leadership roles at Symantec, VeriSign, and McKinsey & Company.
Satya Nadella | Microsoft
, born in Hyderabad, earned his electrical engineering degree from Manipal Institute of Technology before moving to the US.
Taking the helm as Microsoft’s CEO in 2014, he spearheaded the tech giant’s massive shift toward cloud computing and enterprise artificial intelligence.
Sundar Pichai | Alphabet
Hailing from Madurai, Tamil Nadu, studied metallurgical engineering at IIT Kharagpur. He rose through Google’s ranks by leading core products like Chrome and Android before taking over as CEO of Google in 2015 and its parent company, Alphabet, in 2019.
Neal Mohan | YouTube
Neal Mohan, born in the US, was raised partly in Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, during his school years. He graduated in electrical engineering from .
A key architect behind Google’s display advertising infrastructure, Mohan succeeded Susan Wojcicki as the CEO of YouTube in 2023.
Kunal Shah | WhatsApp (VP & Head of Product)
, born in Mumbai and an alumnus of the University of Pennsylvania, serves as Meta’s Vice President and Head of Product for WhatsApp. He oversees global product vision and consumer feature roadmaps for the world’s most popular messaging service.
Arvind Krishna | IBM
Born in Andhra Pradesh, graduated from IIT Kanpur with a degree in electrical engineering before earning a PhD in the US. A veteran IBMer since 1990, he became CEO in 2020 and architected the company’s pivotal pivot to hybrid cloud and AI platforms.
Leena Nair | Chanel
Leena Nair, born and raised in Kolhapur, Maharashtra, graduated from Walchand College of Engineering and completed her MBA at XLRI Jamshedpur. After a historic three-decade career breaking glass ceilings at Unilever, she was appointed Global CEO of French luxury fashion house Chanel in 2022.
Raj Subramaniam | FedEx
Rajesh ‘Raj’ Subramaniam, a native of Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, completed his chemical engineering degree from IIT Bombay before moving abroad. With over three decades of operational leadership at FedEx Corporation, he stepped into the role of President and CEO in 2022 to lead global supply chain modernisation.
Other Indian-origin C-Suite leaders heading top global companies:
- George Kurian | NetApp
- Revathi Advaithi | Flex
- Vasant Narasimhan | Novartis
- C.S. Venkatakrishnan | Barclays
- Vimal Kapur | Honeywell
- Sanjay Mehrotra | Micron Technology
- Nikesh Arora | Palo Alto Networks
- Jayshree Ullal | Arista Networks
- Sridhar Ramaswamy | Snowflake
- Shailesh Jejurikar | P&G (Global COO)