3 India-Born CEOs On Fortune Business Person Of The Year List

By siliconindia | Monday, 17 November 2014, 02:54 Hrs

Satya Nadella, CEO Microsoft, RANK 38

Fortune said Nadella introduced a "humbler, leaner, and hipper" Microsoft in his first year as CEO. "Nadella, who took the helm from the notoriously outspoken Steve Ballmer last February, has initiated a complete strategic overhaul at the software giant. "His 'cloud-first' approach, embodied in Microsoft's own cloud platform Azure, is well on its way to become a $4-billion-a-year player, big enough to take market leaders Salesforce.com and Amazon head on," Fortune added.

Dinesh Paliwal, Chairman Harman International, RANK 42

Paliwal has been leading Harman since 2007, and has overseen the development of Clari-Fi, a technology that restores the nuances that get lost when music is digitally compressed. "Strong demand from clients like Ferrari, BMW, Audi, and Chrysler has turned Harman into a Wall Street darling, beating analysts' earnings estimates seven quarters in a row. "Business is so good that Paliwal recently announced a $500-million share buy-back over the next three years," Fortune said.

The list also includes Apple CEO Tim Cook on the 2nd spot whose recent coming out made him the first openly gay CEO in the Fortune 500. Others on the list are Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger (6), Alibaba Founder Jack Ma (10), Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg (13), Tesla CEO and last year's business person of the year Elon Musk (18), Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos (25), Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett (34) and Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz (47).

-With PTI inputs