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Corporate honchos of Indian origin making waves globally
By siliconindia
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Friday, 14 December 2007, 17:56 IST
New York: While the elevation of Vikram Pandit to the post of Citigroup's CEO has made the American media count the number of foreign born heads of major US companies, Indians can take pride in many of their own rising to dizzying heights in the corporate world.
There are three Indian Americans in The New York Times list of 15 foreign born CEOs of Fortune 100 companies published Wednesday.
Pandit heads Citigroup, world's largest financial services company and eight on the Fortune list, Indra Nooyi is CEO of Pepsico that is ranked 63, and Ramani Iyer is chairperson and CEO of the $27 billion Hartford Financial Group that is at 82.
In its story titled "Seeking leaders, US companies think globally", the Times has attributed the shift towards appointing foreign born CEOs to the importance placed on foreign markets for growth.
Meanwhile, other big guns of Indian origin in corporate America include Raj Gupta, chairperson and CEO of the $8 billion specialty materials company Rohm & Haas, Vinod Gupta, CEO of the $400 million InfoUSA, and Deven Sharma, president of Standard & Poor's.
Pandit himself has a high ranked Indian colleague at Citigroup. Ajay Banga, who was a contender for the top job, heads the Citigroup Global Consumer Group, which brings in half the profits of Citi.
Others who have blazed a trail in the past include Rono Dutta, president of United Airlines, Rakesh Gangwal, CEO of US Airways, Rajat Gupta, managing partner of McKinsey & Co., Meeta Vyas, former CEO of Signature Brands and the first South Asian woman to head a publicly traded company, and Jim Wadia, CEO of Arthur Andersen that spun off Accenture.
In Silicon Valley, Vinod Khosla, Kanwal Rekhi and others have pioneered major ventures.
Elsewhere too, quite a few Indians have risen to the top in the corporate world. Before Nooyi, Arun Sarin became the highest ranked Indian CEO when he took the reins of Britain's Vodafone, one of the world's largest telecom companies with a market capital of $120 billion. One may also count Lakshmi Mittal, CEO and chairperson of Mittal Steel, the world's largest steel company.
At Deutsche Bank, Anshu Jain is head of global markets and a member of the group executive board.
First Indian CEO of a global bank was Rana Talwar who headed Standard Chartered, headquartered in London.