A brigade of Indian women CEOs and MDs are inspiring generations of women to dream big and hustle for their goals. From Vimeo to Chanel, global companies today are being led to new heights by a group of powerful Indian and Indian-origin women. These are 7 of the most influential Indian-origin CEOs taking prideful steps towards gender equality.
Leena Nair
She is the CEO of Chanel and has previously served as the Chief Human Resource Executive at Unilever, where she was the youngest and first female and Asian to hold the position. She was honoured with the Great British Business Woman Role Model of the year award in 2021.
Roshni Nadar Malhotra
She is the chairperson of HCL Technologies and is the first woman to lead a listed IT company in India. She also serves as the Chairperson of VidyaGyan, a leadership academy for the economically underprivileged, meritorious, rural students. In this role, she nurtures future leaders from rural India.
Revathi Advaithi
She is the CEO of Flex (formerly Flextronics) and has previously held leadership positions at Eaton and Honeywell. Advaithi also serves as an independent director for the board of directors of Uber and Catalyst. An advocate for women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields, Advaithi is a member of the MIT Presidential CEO Advisory Board.
Anjali Sud
She is the CEO of Vimeo, an online video platform that went public and reached a valuation of $6 billion under her leadership. She holds a B.Sc. in Finance and Management from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and studied MBA at Harvard Business School. Born in Michigan to Indian immigrant parents, Sud has also worked in companies like Amazon, Time Warner, and Sagent Advisors. She is a designated Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum.
Padmasree Warrior
She is the founder, president, and CEO of Fable Group Inc. and was previously the US CEO and CDO of Chinese EV company NIO. She has also worked as the Chief Technology Officer of Cisco and Motorola. She was raised in Vijayawada. Warrior studied chemical engineering from IIT Delhi and did her master’s from Cornell University. She was featured in Forbes’ list of 100 most powerful women in the world.
Kiran Mazumdar Shaw
She is the founder and executive chairman of Biocon Ltd. and was ranked as the 68th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes in 2019. She founded Biocon in 1978 from her garage in India. One of the most celebrated women in the country, she is a proud recipient of the Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan awards. Shaw received the EY World Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2020 and the EY Entrepreneur of the Year India Award in 2019.
Jayshree V Ullal
She is the CEO of Arista Networks and has been featured on Forbes' list of America's richest self-made women. Born in London, Ullal joined Arista in 2008 after working at Cisco for more than 15 years. She is also on the board of directors of Snowflake since 2020. She was included in the Forbes list of America’s Richest Self-Made Women 2021.