Parag Agrawal who took over Monday as the new head of Twitter shot from relative obscurity as the platform’s technology expert to becoming the latest India-born talent to lead a US tech giant. With Indian-American Agrawal becoming the CEO of Twitter, the number of Indians currently holding important positions in different American tech companies has increased. The list is only likely to grow.
The big names from Indian diaspora who currently run Big Tech in the United States include Google’s Sundar Pichai, Twitter’s Parag Agrawal, Microsoft’s Satya Nadella and more!
Sundar Pichai – Alphabet
The CEO of Alphabet (Google’s parent company), Sundar Pichai was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu in India. He studied at IIT Kharagpur before going to Stanford University to pursue an MS degree in materials science and engineering. Pichai also went on to get an MBA degree from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Pichai took over CEO duties for Google in August 2015 after Larry Page.
Parag Agrawal – Twitter
Parag Agrawal, the newly-appointed CEO of Twitter, is the latest figure to emerge from the Indian diaspora in the United States. Agrawal went to IIT-Bombay, after which he studied at Stanford University and got a PhD degree in computer science. In 2011, he joined Twitter as a distinguished software engineer, and became the chief technology officer (CTO) in 2017.
Satya Nadella – Microsoft
Microsoft’s magic man Satya Nadella was born in Hyderabad, India. Before becoming the CEO of Microsoft, Satya Nadella was the executive vice president of Microsoft’s cloud and enterprise group. At Microsoft, Nadella is credited for the company’s swift move to cloud computing – overseeing the development of one of the world’s largest cloud infrastructures.
Nadella received a bachelor’s in electrical engineering from the Manipal Institute of Technology in Karnataka, before moving to the US to get an MS degree in computer science from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Before joining Microsoft in 1992, Nadella worked at Sun Microsystems.
Arvind Krishna – IBM
The current chairman and CEO of IBM, Arvind Krishna was born in Andhra Pradesh, India. He has remained the CEO of IBM since April 2020 and also took over chairman duties in January 2021. Krishna was behind IBM’s acquisition of Red Hat, the largest one for IBM ever (at $34 billion). Before moving to the States, Krishna received a BTech degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur. Then, he pursued a PhD degree in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Krishna succeeded Ginni Rometty, who served as IBM’s CEO from 2012-2020.
Shantanu Narayen – Adobe Inc.
Born in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, Shantanu Narayen has been at the helm of Adobe Inc since December 2007. Before becoming the CEO, chairman, and the president of Adobe Inc, Narayen got a bachelor’s degree in electronics and communication engineering from University College of Engineering, Osmania University. Not much later, he received a master’s degree in computer science from Bowling Green State University in Ohio. Narayen also has an MBA degree from the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley.
Raghu Raghuram – VMWare
The CEO of VMWare, Raghu Raghuram joined the company in 2003. Raghuram has held multiple leadership roles at VMWare including CEO. According to VMWare, Raghuram is responsible for all of VMWare’s product and service offerings including centralized services, support, and operational functions. Before working at VMWare, Raghuram worked at AOL, Bang Networks, and Netscape – holding product management and marketing roles. Raghuram received a Master’s degree in electrical engineering from IIT-Bombay and also has an MBA degree from the Wharton School of Business. – Agencies
