Four leading India-born CEOs have been named in Fortune’s Businessperson of the Year list that is topped by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg.
The list includes:
- Microsoft’s Satya Nadella ranked 5th among 50 global corporate heads.
- CEO of Milwaukee-based maker of water heaters A O Smith Ajita Rajendra on the 34th spot
- HDFC Bank’s Managing Director Aditya Puri on the 36th position
- Mastercard’s Ajay Banga on 40th spot.
Zuckerberg who topped the list dedicated his success to three pillars of life: his unique ability to look into the future, his otherworldly consistency, and the business discipline he has nurtured in an industry quite often enamored with bright, shiny objects.
- The list of 50 business tycoons also includes Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos (2), Alphabet CEO Larry Page (4), Alibaba Executive Chairman Jack Ma (10), Apple CEO Tim Cook (11), Uber CEO Travis Kalanick (15) and Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz (29).
About Satya Nadella
Satya Narayana Nadella is an Indian-born American business executive and the current chief executive officer (CEO) of Microsoft. He was appointed as CEO on 4 February 2014, succeeding Steve Ballmer.
- Before becoming CEO of Microsoft, he was Executive Vice President of Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise group.
- At Microsoft, Nadella has led a transformation of the company’s business and technology culture from client services to cloud infrastructure and services.
- He has been credited for helping bring Microsoft’s database, Windows Server and developer tools to its Azure cloud.
- The revenue from Cloud Services grew to $20.3 billion in June 2013 from $16.6 billion when he took over in 2011.
About Ajita Rajendra
Ajita Rajendra was named Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of A. O. Smith Corporation on April 7, 2014. He is the ninth CEO of the company.
- Ajita joined A. O. Smith as President of its Water Products Company in January 2005 and was named an Executive Vice President of the Corporation in 2006.
- His dedicated work has lead to doubling profits and nearly tripling the company’s stock price with strong growth in North America and China.
- A.O. Smith Corporation is a global water technology company and manufacturer of residential and commercial water heating and water purification equipment, based in Milwaukee, US.
About Aditya Puri
Aditya Puri is the Managing Director of HDFC Bank, India’s largest private sector bank. Puri has been the Managing Director of the Bank since September 1994, making him the longest-serving head of any bank in the country
- He has about 35 years of banking experience in India and abroad.Prior to joining the Bank, Mr. Puri was the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Citibank, Malaysia from 1992 to 1994.
- He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from Punjab University and is an associate member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.Under the leadership of Puri, the bank has delivered $1.9 billion profits last year.
About Ajay Banga
Ajay Banga is president and chief executive officer of Mastercard and a member of its board of directors.
- MasterCard is a leading global payments & technology company that connects consumers, businesses, merchants, issuers & governments around the world.
- MasterCard announced Ajay Banga to take-over as the company’s president and chief executive officer, on July 1, 2010.
- Banga has been described as one of the “apostles” of a post-cash world who has been “aggressive” in expanding Mastercard overseas.
