Earlier this year, Satya Nadella replaced Steve Ballmer as Microsoft's CEO, underlining the rise of Indians and Indian-Americans in the U.S. tech world.
Today, around 15% of startups in Silicon Valley are founded by Indians, according to the research of Professor Vivek Wadhwa, himself a seasoned entrepreneur.
We've put together a list of some of the brightest minds, innovative dreamers, and most accomplished leaders.
"It's just one more symbolic thing that validates that our world is becoming much more global and is crossing boundaries," Padmasree Warrior, chief technology officer of Cisco Systems, told the LA Times, after Microsoft announced Nadella's new position. "It suggests that it's execution and results that matter in the end, regardless of where you come from."
SATYA NADELLA
CEO, Microsoft
Satya Nadella is the third CEO in the history of Microsoft. He worked at the company for 20 years before winning the CEO title, as a VP in the company's business and online services divisions and heading up Microsoft's cloud computing efforts.
He's known internally as a smart and diplomatic person, who's good at getting warring factions to work together. He just announced his vision for Microsoft to become a software-anywhere company.
GOKUL RAJARAM
Product Engineering Lead, Square
As product engineering lead at mobile-payments startup Square, Gokul Rajaram oversees the startup's point-of-sale system, Square Register.
He was poached from Facebook in July, where he was in charge of developing new ad units as the company's product director of ads.
Rajaram joined Facebook in 2010 when it acquired the startup he was running with his brother, Chai Labs. Facebook essentially bought Chai Labs to hire Rajaram.
Before Chai, Rajaram spent 5 years at Google, where his last job was Product Management Director, AdSense. He was also a product lead for several Google acquisitions.
In short, Rajaram is a tech superstar, described by past colleagues as "a legend" and "beloved times ten."
VINOD KHOSLA
Founder, Khosla Ventures
Vinod Khosla dreamed of starting his own technology company since he was 16.
First, Khosla co-founded Daisy Systems, a computer-aided design system for electrical engineers, followed by Sun Microsystems to build workstations for software developers (Oracle bought the company in 2010). He eventually became a general partner at the VC firm Kleiner Perkins.
Then he decided to start his own firm. He founded Khosla Ventures, one of Silicon Valley's top-tier venture capital firms, in 2004. Since, Khosla has backed companies like Square, Jawbone, ZocDoc, Indiegogo, and bitly. Khosla is also a founding board member of the Indian School of Business.
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