In Pictures: Laxman Narasimhan joins Satya Nadella, Sunder Pichai- Top Indian-origin CEOs leading companies across the world

US TECH STARS: Laxman Narasimhan, named new Starbucks CEO on Friday, is the latest India-born star tapped to head a major US-based tech company, following the likes of Google-parent Alphabet's CEO Sundar Pichai and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

LAXMAN NARASIMHAM: Starbucks Corp on Thursday (September 09, 2022) named Laxman Narasimhan, 55, as its next chief executive officer, choosing a consumer-industry veteran to undertake a "reinvention" of the world's biggest coffee chain. Before his stint at Reckitt, Narasimhan was an executive at global beverage titan PepsiCo Inc., which is a Starbucks partner for ready-to-drink products, and worked at consulting firm McKinsey & Co.

PARAG AGARWAL: Parag Agarwal, 37, was named new Twitter CEO in 2021 by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey. Agarwal joins a growing list of India-born tech executives running top global companies. Google, Microsoft, IBM, Adobe, VMWare & other tech giants have Indian-born CEOs

ARVIND KRISHNA — IBM: An IBM veteran who joined the company 30 years back, Krishna did his schooling from Stanes Higher Secondary School in Bedford, Coonoor. He earned his BE in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (1980-1985) and earned a PhD in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Currently IBM Senior Vice President for Cloud and Cognitive Software, he leads the IBM business unit that provides the cloud and data platform on which IBM's clients build the future.

GEORGE KURIAN — NetApp: Kurian is president and chief executive officer of NetApp and a member of the Board of Directors. George joined Netapp in 2011 and was named CEO in June 2015. George holds a bachelor of science degree in electrical engineering from Princeton University and an MBA from Stanford University.

JAYSHREE ULLAL — Arista Networks: In October 2008, co-founders Andy Bechtolsheim & David Cheriton named Ullal CEO & President of Arista Networks. In June 2014, Ullal led the Artista to a historic and successful IPO in June 2014 from zero to a multibillion-dollar business. Jayshree holds a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering and a master's degree in engineering management.

SANDEEP MATHRANI — WeWork: Mathrani, a real estate industry veteran, will officially take over on February 18, WeWork said in a statement. He will be charged with the difficult task of relaunching WeWork, which had been one of America's most celebrated startups that put a mammoth footprint in the commercial real estate of major cities around the globe. No stranger to struggling companies, Mathrani revived the giant shopping mall operator GGP after it went bankrupt in 2010.

SANJAY MEHROTRA — Micron: Mehrotra, who is currently the president and chief executive officer at Micron Technology, joined Micron in May 2017. Prior to SanDisk, Mehrotra held design engineering positions at Integrated Device Technology, Inc., SEEQ Technology and Intel Corporation. Mehrotra holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering and computer science from the University of California, Berkeley.

SATYA NADELLA — Microsoft: Nadella is only the third CEO in Microsoft's history, following co-founder Bill Gates and Ballmer. Nadella has a degree in electrical engineering from the Manipal Institute of Technology (then part of Mangalore University) and has postgraduate degrees in computer science at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and received an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

SHANTANU NARAYEN — Adobe: Narayen is the chairman, president and chief executive officer of Adobe. Shantanu joined Adobe in 1998 as vice president and general manager of its engineering technology group. He became president and COO in 2005, CEO two years later and chairman of the board in 2017. Narayen holds a bachelor's degree in electronics engineering and a master’s degree in computer science from Bowling Green State University, Ohio and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of California at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.

SUNDAR PICHAI — Google, Alphabet: Pichai took over from Larry Page, a co-founder of the internet firm, at the parent company which includes Google as well as units focusing on “other bets” in areas including self-driving cars and life sciences. The 47-year-old Pichai, takes the helm at a time when Page and Brin have been noticeably absent and the company faces a torrent of controversies relating to its dominant position in the tech world. Born to humble beginnings in the southern city of Chennai, he studied engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Kharagpur before heading to America to further his studies and career.