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Satya Nadella has hogged the limelight for being chosen as Microsoft's new CEO, but there are a few other Indian-origin heads of companies out there who also deserve a mention for their remarkable success
When it comes to Indians and CEOs, the headlines in the past few months have been primarily hogged by Satya Nadella, the newly-appointed CEO of Microsoft.
Now that the dust has settled on his appointment, this is a good time to see who else out there are the relatively unheralded 'Nadellas' of the tech world—Indian-origin CEOs who may have made their mark at well-known outfits but who may not have received the kind of overwhelming public adulation that Nadella has recently.
ZDNet unearthed five of them who warrant mentioning, not just because they were the top dogs at their companies, but because of what they did while there. Four out of the five have been turnaround artists, responsible for salvaging the fortunes of companies that were either rapidly tanking or whose futures were in some peril. Almost all of them took risky, counterintuitive bets that made these turnarounds possible.
All of them were the quintessential 'Engineer’s CEOs.' Armed with advanced degrees in engineering from well-regarded institutions both in India and overseas, a few were even owners of significant industry patents. This allowed them to forge a sense of camaraderie and fellowship with their engineering work forces who were often low on morale.
The CEOs in this round-up were all heads of product companies and often in fields such as semi-conductors where technology cycles can be disruptive and volatile. Almost all were entrenched in a world where yesterday's solutions could easily be discarded onto tomorrow's dustheaps, necessitating a continuous search for cutting-edge innovation and risk-taking.
Caption by: Rajiv Rao
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