Leading Indian CEOs

Some of the leading global Indian business leaders that are making a mark at a global corporate levels are -

(SOURCE: TIME, Aug 1 - Aug 8, 2011 Issue)

Kraft Foods - SANJAY KHOSLA.

Mr. Khosla was appointed as Executive Vice President and President, Developing Markets effective August 1, 2010. Prior to that, he served as Executive Vice President and President, Kraft Foods International from January 2007 to July 2010.

Sanjay graduated with a Honors degree of Bachelor of Technology in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi in 1973. In 2007, Sanjay was honored as a Distinguished Alumni of IIT Delhi. In 1998, Sanjay completed the Harvard University Advanced Management Program.

ArcelorMittal - LAKSHMI MITTAL

Lakshmi Narayan Mittal (born 15 June 1950)[4] is an Indian steel magnate. He is the chairman and chief executive officer of ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steelmaking company.

Mittal is the richest man in the United Kingdom, second richest man in Europe and is presently the sixth richest individual in the world with a personal wealth of US$31.1 billion.

Lakshmi Niwas Mittal was born into a Marwari business family in Churu district of Rajasthan, India. His family moved from (Rajgarh)Sadulpur, Rajasthan to Calcutta in West Bengal. He graduated from St. Xavier's College, Calcutta where he graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce degree in business and accounting with first class.

Motorola Mobility - SANJAY JHA

Sanjay K. Jha (born 1963) is Chairman and CEO of Motorola Mobility and previous served as co-chief executive officer of Motorola, Inc. from 2008.

Before joining Motorola, Sanjay Jha was COO of Qualcomm and president of Qualcomm CDMA Technologies (QCT). As COO, Jha was overlooking Corporate Research and Development and Qualcomm Flarion Technologies (QFT) in addition to his role as president of QCT, the chipset and software division of Qualcomm Incorporated.

Sanjay Jha was born in Sultanganj (Bhagalpur) Bihar, the eastern state of India[2] He holds a Ph.D. in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from the University of Strathclyde, Scotland. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Engineering from the University of Liverpool, England.

Pepsico - INDRA NOOYI

Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi (born 28 October 1955) is an Indian-born American executive. She is the current Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of PepsiCo.

Nooyi was named on Wall Street Journal's list of 50 women to watch in 2007 and 2008, and was listed among Time's 100 Most Influential People in The World in 2007 and 2008. Forbes named her the #3 most powerful woman in 2008. Fortune ranked her the #1 most powerful woman in business in 2009 and 2010. On the 7th of October 2010 Forbes magazine ranked her the 6th most powerful woman in the world.

Indra Nooyi was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. She completed her schooling from Holy Angels AIHSS, Chennai. She received a Bachelor's degree in Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics from Madras Christian College in 1974 and a Post Graduate Diploma in Management (MBA) from Indian Institute of Management Calcutta in 1976.

INSEAD - DIPAK JAIN

Dipak C. Jain is the current dean of INSEAD and the former dean of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Jain was born on June 9, 1957, in a small town called Tezpur, Assam, a state in north-eastern part of India. He did his schooling from Rastrabhasa Hindi School at Tezpur.

Harvard - NITIN NOHRIA

Nitin Nohria is the 10th and the current dean of Harvard Business School.

Nohria was born in Nohar, Rajasthan, India. Nohria graduated from St. Columba's School in New Delhi, India following which he earned a B.Tech in Chemical Engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay and earned a Ph.D. in Management from the Sloan School of Management, MIT.

Citigroup - VIKRAM PANDIT

Vikram Pandit (born 14 January 1957) is an Indian- American businessman who is the chief executive officer of Citigroup.

Vikram Pandit was born in Nagpur, India, to an affluent Marathi family. He completed his schooling at the Dadar Parsee Youths Assembly High School in Dadar, Mumbai. He moved to the United States when he was sixteen years old to study at Gannon University. He received a B.S. and M.S. in electrical engineering from Columbia University in 1976 and 1977 respectively and an M.B.A in 1980 followed by a Ph.D. in Finance from Columbia Business School in 1986

Berkshire Hathaway - AJIT JAIN

Ajit Jain (born, July 23, 1951) is a businessman who currently heads several reinsurance businesses for Berkshire Hathaway and had once been touted as a possible successor to Warren Buffett.

Ajit Jain was raised in India's coastal state of Orissa. He graduated in 1972 from the Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur with a bachelor's degree in engineering.

Google- NIKESH ARORA

Nikesh Arora is the current Senior Vice President and Chief Business Officer at Google.

Arora received a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University (now IIT BHU) in Varanasi, India in 1989. He also holds a master's degree from Boston College and an MBA from Northeastern University, both of which were awarded with distinction.

Facts: In a study of S&P 500 companies, Egon Zehnder found

- more Indian CEOs than any other nationality except American.

- Indians lead seven companies, Canadians, four.

Among the C-suite executives in the 2009 FORTUNE 500 were two mainland Chinese, two North American Chinese and 13 Indians.

Here in Singapore following are the notable CEO's appointed in recent years and remarkably post GFC. The list could be much longer if we were to include those

appointments at 1 or 2 level down.

DBS Group Holdings - PIYUSH GUPTA.

Piyush Gupta, was appointed as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) as of November 2009.

Gupta spent over two-thirds of his 27-year career in South East Asia and Hong Kong, including eight years in Singapore.

Gupta was Citi’s CEO for South East Asia-Pacific, covering Asean (Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam and Brunei), Australia, New Zealand and Guam. In this role, his responsibilities encompass all of Citi’s businesses including Financial Markets, Corporate and Investment Banking, Transaction Services, Credit Cards, Retail Banking and Wealth Management.

ANZ Banking Group - VISHNU SHAHANEY.

Vishnu Shahaney, previously managing director, specialised lending and loan product for ANZ in Asia Pacific, Europe and America, was appointed as CEO for its Singapore

office as of October 2010.

SINGAPORE MERCANTILE EXCHANGE(SMX) – V HARIHARAN.

Mr. V Hariharan was appointed as the interim CEO with effect from June 20, 2011.

Prior to joining SMZ he has held pivotal roles within the Financial Technologies Group -- a leading provider of trading technology solutions and the creator of several exchange and support eco-system ventures across India, Middle East, Asia and Africa.

Citibank - SHIRISH APTE.

Shirish Apte was appointed CEO of Citi Asia Pacific as of July 2009.

Apte moves to Asia-Pacific after guiding Citi in other emerging markets. He served as CEO of Citi's Central and Eastern Europe region.

Apte has served in several senior management roles in more than 26 years with Citi, including as CEO of Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East and Africa Citi markets and banking.

Please feel free to write in if any notable appointments are missing from the list to neitham(at)gmail(dot)com, alternately kindly leave your comments.