THE CORNER OFFICE JUGGERNAUT
THE WEEK|October 24, 2021
FROM THE CLICHED GENERALISATION OF DORKS CRUNCHING CODE IN SILICON VALLEY, INDIANS HAVE MOVED UP THE RANKS TO STAKE THEIR CLAIM ON CORNER OFFICES IN SOME OF THE WORLD’S BIGGEST AND MOST PRESTIGIOUS COMPANIES
K. SUNIL THOMAS
THE CORNER OFFICE JUGGERNAUT

SUNDAR PICHAI, 49

CEO, ALPHABET (HQ: US) SINCE

OCT 2015

COMPANY REVENUE $182.53 billion

PLACE OF BIRTH MADURAI, TAMIL NADU

EDUCATION BTech (Metallurgical engineering), IIT Kharagpur

Master's (engineering), Stanford

MBA, Wharton School of Business

CAREER Applied Materials

McKinsey & Company

Google/Alphabet (since 2004)

Spearheaded development of Android One and Chrome OS

It is customary for visiting heads of governments to meet not just ministers and diplomats, but also captains of industry and leaders of society. It was during the visit of Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh to the US in 2009 that Pepsi chief executive officer Indra Nooyi, one of the earliest Indians to head a Fortune 500 company, found herself on such a list.

“When he got to me, prime minister Singh exclaimed, “Oh! But she is one of us!” Nooyi recounts in her autobiography, My Life in Full, released recently. President Barack Obama, with a big smile and without missing a beat, responded, “Ah, but she is one of us, too!”

A highlight of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s official visit to the US in September was a meeting with the CEOs of five multinational companies. However, unlike a formal introduction before a state banquet or a tete-a-tete on the sidelines of a conference—where the personalities are selected keeping in mind the sensibilities of diversity and representation—the selection was purely based on business interests.

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