Indian-origin chief executives are a prominent force in global corporate leadership, with between 14 and 25 CEOs of major American and multinational firms tracing their roots to India. These leaders collectively oversee businesses worth trillions of dollars, impacting billions of lives through various industries. Notable examples include Satya Nadella at Microsoft, Sundar Pichai at Alphabet, Arvind Krishna at IBM, Shantanu Narayen at Adobe, and Nikesh Arora at Palo Alto Networks. Other significant figures include Jayshree Ullal at Arista Networks, George Kurian at NetApp, Anirudh Devgan at Cadence, Leena Nair at Chanel, Raj Subramaniam at FedEx, and Ajay Banga at the World Bank.
Despite this success on the global stage, India's private sector banks are grappling with a shortage of qualified CEOs. This issue is attributed to strict compensation regulations and inadequate succession planning within these institutions. Historically, some Indian banks like ICICI Bank were known for producing a pipeline of talent that went on to lead various financial services companies, including Shikha Sharma at Axis Bank and V. Vaidyanathan at IDFC First Bank. However, this trend has reversed, with banks and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) struggling to find suitable candidates for CEO roles, sometimes leading to multiple banks pursuing the same individual.
In the Indian IT services sector, CEO compensation has seen significant increases even as stock performance has faltered for some companies. For example, Persistent Systems CEO Sandeep Kalra's compensation jumped 162.2% to ₹388 crore in FY26, while the company's stock gained only 4%. HCLTech CEO C. Vijayakumar's pay rose 67% to ₹172 crore, but the stock declined 33%. Similarly, Infosys CEO Salil Parekh's compensation saw a modest 2.5% increase to ₹83 crore, while the stock fell 47%. These trends highlight a disconnect between executive pay and shareholder returns in parts of the Indian tech industry.
Simultaneously, India's growing General Capability Centers (GCCs) are attracting a significant number of senior Indian executives back from the US. More than 7,000 mid- and senior-level professionals with over 10 years of experience have joined India's top 125 GCCs, with a nearly sevenfold increase in returning professionals since 2023. These GCCs, projected to grow to 3,000 by 2030, are offering leadership roles with comparable scope to those in overseas headquarters, as India increasingly becomes a hub for product development and strategic decision-making.
