The Indians running
the world's companies
A public, hand-verified archive of Indian-born founders, chairmen and chief executives leading consequential companies abroad. Search the people, the companies, and the countries — not a ranking, a record.
Vinod Khosla · Sundar Pichai · Indra Nooyi · Satya Nadella · Naval Ravikant
About the index
A public record of Indian-origin leadership abroad
The Indian Diaspora Index documents founders, chairs, and chief executives who left India and now run companies in other countries — so the pattern is visible, filterable, and honest about gaps. It does not argue causation. It makes the set inspectable.
What this is
A free, public archive of Indian-born people who now lead companies outside India. It is a searchable record — not a ranking, a social network, or a claim about population size.
Who appears
Founders, co-founders, chairmen, and chief executives of Indian origin, including hired CEOs at consequential firms. Unverified or unclear roles stay off the index until a human check clears them.
How to use it
Search by name, or filter by sector, country, role, education, and company size. Each profile is a citable snapshot of title, company, and country of residence.
Curious about the selection story? Read why this diaspora keeps showing up, or how entries are verified.
By sector
All sectors →Where they lead
Entries by country of residence, counted from the verified set.
Recently added
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The question
How come Indians make such formidable founders & CEOs?
It is not a numbers game. India has vanishingly few Olympic golds — talent is not evenly distributed into every arena. Yet Indian-born leaders sit atop Microsoft, Google, Adobe, IBM, FedEx, Chanel, and a long tail of companies that quietly move the world.
What travels is a narrow filter: exam intensity (IIT / IIM and their cousins), English-medium STEM pipelines, and the habit of rebuilding a career oceans away. The diaspora that clears that filter is small. The mandates they hold are not.
This index does not claim causation. It documents 3,967 hand-verified founders, chairs, and chief executives who left India and now lead consequential companies abroad — so the pattern is visible, searchable, and honest about gaps.
Not medals
Different arena
Olympic gold is scarce. Board seats and founder equity are a different contest — one this archive tracks.
Selection
Narrow funnels
Campus brands that keep recurring are signals of selection pressure, not population size.
Mobility
Rebuild abroad
The leap is geographic and institutional: new country, new company, same insistence on building.
Insights
Discovery across the archive.
Destinations, sectors, colleges, and gender — a live cut of 3,967 verified entries.
Where the diaspora built — not where it started.
- 01United States2,245 · 57%
- 02United Kingdom425 · 11%
- 03United Arab Emirates336 · 8%
- 04Singapore316 · 8%
- 05Canada105 · 3%
- 06Australia66 · 2%
- 07Germany59 · 1%
- 08Netherlands46 · 1%
Methodology
How the archive is kept honest
Inclusion is narrow on purpose. The index only publishes people whose role and Indian origin can be checked, and it stays correctable.
Only entries marked verified in the source record appear here. Unverified and undetermined roles are held back until a human check clears them.
Founders, co-founders, chairmen and chief executives of Indian origin leading companies abroad — including hired CEOs at consequential firms.
Anyone listed can request a correction or removal. Requests are reviewed promptly — use the form.
Request removal →Browse every verified entry
Free to browse. Search by name, sector, country, role, education and company size.