Indian-Origin Executives Take Helm of Global Giants

Several Indian-origin CEOs have taken the helm of some of the world's biggest companies in various industries. Adobe named Anil Chakravarthy its next president and CEO on September 3, 2026, effective December 1. He will succeed fellow Indian-origin executive Shantanu Narayen, who is moving to executive chair after more than 18 years as CEO.

Chakravarthy was born in India and studied computer science at IIT Varanasi before earning a master's and PhD from MIT. He worked at McKinsey and held senior roles at VeriSign and Symantec before becoming CEO of Informatica, which he joined in 2020.

Other notable Indian-origin CEOs include Satya Nadella, who has been leading Microsoft since February 2014; Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google and Alphabet since 2015 and 2019 respectively; and Arvind Krishna, who took over as IBM's CEO in April 2020.

These individuals have made significant contributions to their respective companies and industries. Chakravarthy's experience at Informatica will likely serve him well in his new role at Adobe.