The new ‘desi’ power circle: rise of the next wave of Indian-origin leaders in Big Tech

The ‘Desi Club’ in Silicon Valley is no longer just about Indian-origin CEOs. It now also includes executives who lead operations, finance, product, and technology and play a key role in running and shaping some of the world’s biggest tech companies.
Much has been written about executives leading global giants such as Sundar Pichai (Google), Satya Nadella (Microsoft), Sridhar Ramaswamy (Snowflake), Neal Mohan (YouTube), Nikesh Arora (Palo Alto Networks), Shantanu Narayen (Adobe), and Arvind Krishna (IBM).

But alongside these, a new wave of Indian-origin CXOs is rising into other critical leadership roles. A quick look at a few of them.

Arvind KC (Chief People Officer, OpenAI)

Appointed to the role on Wednesday, Arvind KC will lead OpenAI’s hiring, onboarding, development, and organisational systems. He holds a PhD in computer science and mathematics from the University of Florida. Prior to OpenAI, he was a key engineering and people leader at Roblox, Google, and Workday. His background combines deep technical expertise with human resources leadership.

Rahul Patil (CTO, Anthropic)

Rahul Patil joined Anthropic in October 2025 as CTO, succeeding cofounder Sam McCandlish. The Bengaluru boy oversees US-headquartered Anthropic’s engineering team, covering product, compute infrastructure, and security. Patil is an alumnus of PES University with a BE in computer science. With over 20 years of experience in scaling mission-critical infrastructure, Patil, in previous roles, has been the CTO of fintech firm Stripe and held senior leadership roles at AWS, Microsoft, and Oracle.

Vaibhav Taneja (CFO, Tesla)

Appointed in August 2023, Vaibhav Taneja serves as the chief financial officer (CFO) and chief accounting officer (CAO) of Tesla, overseeing the financial strategy and global operations of Tesla. Wearing dual hats, Taneja reports directly to Elon Musk. He holds a Bachelor of Commerce (B.Com) degree from Delhi University and is a qualified Chartered Accountant (ICAI) and Certified Public Accountant (CPA). His career includes a 17-year tenure at PwC and senior leadership roles at SolarCity before its $2.6 billion acquisition by Tesla.

Balaji Krishnamurthy (CFO, Uber)

Appointed as Uber’s CFO in February 2026, Balaji Krishnamurthy succeeded Prashanth Mahendra-Rajah. He leads Uber’s global finance and investor relations, focussing on the company’s autonomous vehicle (AV) strategy. Krishnamurthy graduated with a BE in electronics and communication from the Manipal Institute of Technology, the same alma mater as Satya Nadella, and holds an MBA from MDI Gurgaon. He spent eight years at Goldman Sachs before joining Uber in 2019.

Praveen Naga (CTO, Uber)

Praveen Naga leads Uber’s global engineering and data science teams, managing over 4,000 engineers. He has been pivotal in integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into Uber’s mobility and delivery infrastructure to improve driver and rider experiences. Before joining Uber in 2015, he spent seven years at LinkedIn. Naga is an advocate for scaling AI across real-world logistics systems.

Sabih Khan (COO, Apple)

Sabih Khan took over the role of Apple’s COO in July 2025. He oversees Apple’s global supply chain, manufacturing operations, and sustainability initiatives. Born in Uttar Pradesh’s Moradabad and raised in Singapore, Khan holds a BS in economics and mechanical engineering from Tufts University and an MS from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Since joining Apple in 1995, he has helped the company expand its global operations.



Mustafa Furniturewala (CTO, Coursera)

Mustafa Furniturewala leads Coursera's tech team, overseeing infrastructure, data, and IT to ensure expertise in consumer platform engineering. Furniturewala, who has been with Coursera since 2014, was named CTO in April 2024. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree from Savitribai Phule Pune University and an MS in computer science from Rochester Institute of Technology. Prior to becoming Coursera's CTO, he held engineering leadership roles at Twitter (now known as X), Evernote, and Citrix.

Asha Sharma (EVP & CEO, Microsoft Gaming)

Appointed in February 2026, Asha Sharma leads the Xbox ecosystem and the integration of Activision Blizzard at Microsoft Gaming. She reports directly to Satya Nadella. Sharma graduated from the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota. Her career includes serving as COO of Instacart and VP at Meta. She rejoined Microsoft in 2024 to lead Core AI, bringing an AI-first approach to the gaming division. She started with marketing for Microsoft.

Sachin Katti (Head of Compute Infrastructure, OpenAI)

Sachin Katti joined OpenAI in November 2025 to lead its compute infrastructure department, focussing on the custom silicon and hardware clusters required for Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). An alumnus of IIT Bombay with a PhD from MIT, Katti was previously the chief technology and AI officer at Intel. Before his corporate jump, he was a professor at Stanford University and founded multiple AI-driven startups, including Uhana, which was later acquired by VMware.

Srinivas Narayanan (VP Engineering & Product, OpenAI)

Srinivas Narayanan is the CTO of business-to-business (B2B) applications at OpenAI, overseeing the engineering teams for ChatGPT Enterprise and the Developer API. He holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from IIT Madras and a master's from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Before joining OpenAI in 2023, he spent 13 years at Meta, where he was VP of Engineering for the Applied AI Research group, helping scale AI across Facebook’s global product suite. Narayanan also briefly worked with IBM.