Rajeev Suri, Satya Nadella and others: Indian CEOs leading tech companies worldwide

Rajeev Suri’s appointment as CEO of Nokia has just put another Indian at the helm of technology companies. Suri’s fellow Manipal Institute of Technology alumnus Satya Nadella has already taken the reins at Microsoft as CEO and has been ringing in the changes.

Suri will bring nearly 20 years of experience to the CEO post and has been a Nokia veteran, working at the company since 1995. While he takes over at crucial time for the company , he has a lot of other Indian tech CEOs to take inspiration from. But let’s start with a brief introduction to the new Nokia CEO.

Rajeev Suri

Suri was born in India in 1967, but was raised in Kuwait. He holds a B. Tech degree from the Manipal Institute of Technology. It should be noted that Suri is one of those few executives who have risen to the top without an MBA degree. Suri joined Nokia in 1995. His first major posting came when he served as the Head of Asia Pacific at Nokia Siemens Networks from April to August, 2007. He was also Senior Vice President, Asia Pacific, Nokia from February 2005 to March 2007.

Satya Nadella

Satya Nadella’s appointment as only the third CEO of Microsoft has been largely seen in a positive light. His style seems completely in contrast to Steve Ballmer, whom he replaced and since taking over, he has made some crucial changes, including bringing productivity software Microsoft Office to iPads and Android tablets . He has also overseen the launch of Windows Phone 8.1 and the merger with Nokia, following which Microsoft is eyeing a $50 billion smartphone market.

Sanjay K. Jha

Appointed earlier this year as the CEO of GlobalFoundries Inc, Sanjay Jha has previously held the CEO position at Motorola Mobility and the COO post at Qualcomm. He stepped down from his Motorola post after Google acquired the company and oversaw the formation of Qualcomm Technologies & Ventures, the company’s technology investment division. Jha holds a Ph.D. in Electronic and Electrical Engineering from Strathclyde University in Scotland and a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from University of Liverpool. Jha was brought on board at GlobalFoundries to lead the company’s build out and ramp of its Fab 8 leading-edge facility in New York.

Shantanu Narayen

Since 1998, Shantanu Narayen has been a leading exec within Adobe and is currently the President, Chief Executive Officer and Director of Adobe Systems. He started his career at Apple and has been a director at Silicon Graphics too. He has held the CEO position since 2007, when he also joined the board, and had previously been the Chief Operating Officer of the company. Interestingly, like Nadella he hails from Hyderabad. He’s a member of the US President’s Advisory Management Board, as well as a board member at Dell. In addition, he serves on the advisory board of the Haas School of Business at University of California in Berkeley.

Abhi Talwalkar

A Silicon Valley veteran, Abhi Talwalkar was appointed LSI president and CEO in 2005 He came on board at LSI from Intel, where he was vice president and co-general manager of the Digital Enterprise Group. He had been at Intel since 1993, before moving on to LSI. Talwalkar is on the Board of the US Semiconductor Association, and a member of the US delegation for World Semiconductor Council proceedings. His tenure has seen eight acquisitions and the sell-off of the company’s external storage business to NetApp, The merger with Agere Systems and the acquisition of SandForce are seen as pivotal developments for LSI’s future growth.