Laxman Narasimhan is the new Starbucks CEO; Here's a list of Indian-origin leaders in global companies

Pune University Engineering graduate Laxman Narasimhan who stepped down as the Chief Executive Officer of Reckitt has now been named the new CEO of coffee giant Starbucks.
With this appointment, Narasimhan joins a growing list of Indian-origin CEOs at the helm of US-based global giants, including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai and Twitter head Parag Agrawal. Indra Nooyi had served as PepsiCo's CEO for 12 years before stepping down in 2018.

Narasimhan has become the chief executive officer-elect of the five-decade-old popular coffee chain Starbucks Coffee Company which has 34,000 stores worldwide and is the premier roaster and retailer of speciality coffee. Narasimhan, 55 was previously the CEO of UK-based Reckitt Benckiser, a multinational consumer health, hygiene and nutrition company.

He will join the coffee chain as incoming CEO on October 1 this year, after relocating from London to Seattle and will work closely with interim head Howard Schultz, before assuming the top role and joining the Board on April 1, 2023.

Previously, the mechanical engineering graduate Narasimhan held various leadership roles at PepsiCo, including as global chief commercial officer, where he was responsible for the company's long-term strategy and digital capabilities.

He also served as CEO of the company's Latin America, Europe and Sub-Saharan Africa operations, and previously as the CEO of PepsiCo Latin America, and the CFO of PepsiCo Americas Foods. Prior to PepsiCo, Narasimhan was a senior partner at McKinsey & Company, where he focused on its consumer, retail and technology practices in the U.S., Asia and India and led the firm's thinking on the future of retail.

During Narasimhan's employment with the Company, he will receive an initial base salary of USD 1,300,000 per year, and an annual cash incentive target opportunity equal to 200 per cent of base salary.

People of Indian origin hold top positions across the corporate arena, in academics, the information technology field as well as scientific research among others.

The list includes Sundar Pichai who heads Google and its parent company Alphabet, Microsoft's Satya Nadella, IBM's Arvind Krishna, and Adobe's Shantanu Narayen.

Indian-origin corporates getting into the top positions began to be visible in the 1990s.

Reportedly, it all started in the mid-1990s, with the elevation of Raj Gupta as the Chairman and CEO of Rohm & Haas, RamAyer as the CEO and Chairman of The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc and Rakesh Gangwal as CEO of the US Airways Group.

At the start of the 21st century, Indra Nooyi became the CEO of PepsiCo.

There's no looking back since then. Following is a list of incumbent Indian-origin CEOs in the US:

• Satya Nadella, CEO at Microsoft
• Parag Agrawal, CEO of Twitter
• Arvind Krishna, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of IBM
• Vivek Sankaran, President and CEO at Albertsons
• Sanjay Mehrotra, President and CEO at Micron Technology
• Shantanu Narayen, Chairman and CEO at Adobe Inc
• CS Venkatakrishnan, CEO at Barclays
• Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and its parent company Alphabet
• Punit Renjen, CEO at Deloitte
• Revathi Advaithi, CEO at Flex
• Shar Dubey - recently relieved from her role as CEO at Match
• Sonia Syngal - recently relieved from her role as CEO at Gap

(With agency inputs)