Pune University Engineering graduate Laxman Narasimhan has been named as the new CEO of coffee giant Starbucks, adding to the long list of Indian-origin corporates who are doing phenomenally well in various top decision-making positions across sectors globally, especially in the US.
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 specialty coffee.
Narasimhan is set to join the coffee chain as the incoming CEO on 1 October 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 1 April 2023.
The newly-appointed chief, Narasimhan, brings nearly 30 years of experience.
Indian-origin corporates getting into the top positions began to be visible in the 1990s.
It all started in the mid-1990s, with the elevation of Raj Gupta as the Chairman and CEO of Rohm & Haas. At the start of the 21st century, Indra Nooyi became the CEO of PepsiCo.
LIST OF INCUMBENT INDIAN-ORIGIN CEOS IN THE U.S.
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