LinkedIn Power Profiles 2018 list recognises influential Indian professionals
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Chairman and Senior Managing Director, Accenture
Menon has been responsible for building Accenture’s business in India and strengthening its position in the country by integrating its overall growth strategy. She joined Accenture in 2004 and she has actively been involved in its Inclusion and Diversity and Corporate Citizenship initiatives.
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Binny Bansal
Co-founder & CEO, Flipkart Group
Bansal co-founded Flipkart along with ex-Amazon colleague Sachin Bansal. The internet entrepreneur graduated from IIT-Delhi. Both the Bansals, who are not related to eachother, quit the US giant to launch Flipkart in India, which saw its humble beginning as an online book store before catapulting to become one of India's largest ecommerce platforms.
US retail giant Walmart only recently bought 77 percent of the ecommerce company which saw Sachin Bansal exiting the business.
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Chairman and MD, Hindustan Unilever
Mehta has been the chairman and managing director of HUL since June 30, 2018. He also leads Unilever’s South Asia business as the executive vice president. Mehta has been a part of the HUL Group for the last 26 years. He is also a director on Indian School of Business's board and a member of the Breach Candy Hospital trust.
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CEO and MD, Tech Mahindra
As the chief executive and managing director of Tech Mahindra, Gurnani's focus on customer experience has helped Tech Mahindra emerge as one of the leading IT companies in India. Over 36 years, he has been a part of organisations such as Hewlett Packard Ltd, Perot Systems (India) Ltd. and HCL Corporation Ltd. He is now steering the Tech Mahindra as the Indian IT sector rejigs itself to cater to digital projects.
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Chief Executive Officer, Myntra, Jabong
Under his leadership, Myntra has made two strategic acquisitions – Cubeit, a Bangalore based start-up that facilitates content aggregation on mobile devices, and Jabong from Global Fashion Group; making it India’s biggest fashion e-tail destination. Narayanan aims to make Myntra the first profitable ecommerce company in India. He started his career with Mckinsey & Company, where he worked for 15 years in four different offices. Narayanan has been using his experience in consultancy and managing operations to mentor start-ups.
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President, Microsoft India
Maheshwari has been working on transforming Microsoft India, making it more productive and focusing on the mobile-first, cloud-first era. Microsoft’s role in India is essential, especially with the country’s focus on Digital India. Prior to Microsoft, Maheshwari has worked with the Honeywell Group.
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Executive Chairperson at Godrej Consumer Products
Godrej has been a key player in planning Godrej Consumer Products Limited (GPCL's) strategy in the last decade. In 2007, she launched Project Leapfrog, which helped accelerate organic growth in the Indian market through innovation, to become a more global company by investing in other emerging markets. She is also known to have brought about design-driven thinking. Over the last ten years, its market capitalisation has risen from Rs 3,000 crore to Rs 60,000 crore.
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Along with the most influential CEOs on LinkedIn, the professional networking platform also revealed a list of what it calls LinkedIn Influencers. Dominating the list are Priyanka Chopra and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Priyanka Chopra
Actor and Singer
After proving her mettle in Bollywood with several super hit movies, the former Miss World has now moved to Hollywood. The Padma Shri awardee has been lauded for her work in the American TV series Quantico and in Hollywood movies like Baywatch, A Kid Like Jake. She is starring in the upcoming flick Isn't it Romantic. Recently, she also signed Cowboy Ninja Viking with actor Chris Pratt. In her singing career, she has also collaborated with will.i.am (‘In my city’) and Pitbull (‘Exotic’).
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Prime Minister of India
Modi’s focus on development and foreign policy has made him one of the most popular and controversial Indian political leaders. His powerful personality and tech-savviness has made him very popular on social media.
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Shradha Sharma
Founder & CEO, YourStory Media
People are just as extraordinary as they believe themselves to be. On this premise, Shradha Sharma founded YourStory in 2008, with the aim of championing the untold stories of entrepreneurship in India. She strongly believes that stories have the power to transform, connect and inspire people all over the world.
YourStory's founder is followed by Vani Kola, managing director, Kalaari Capital, on the list. Having been a successful entrepreneur in Silicon Valley, Kola now works with first-time entrepreneurs to build strong global companies. She focuses on technology companies, leveraging India’s domestic growth to create high growth enterprises. To date, Kalaari Capital has funded more than 50 companies in India.
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Ravi Venkatesan
Chairman of the Board, Bank of Baroda
Ravi Venkatesan was the former chairman of Bank of Baroda. Board mMember at Rockefeller Foundation. Founder of Social Venture Partners India, a pan-India network of engaged philanthropists. Partner at Unitus Ventures. Former chairman of Microsoft India and Cummins India. Former board member and co-chairman of Infosys Ltd, and also served on the Boards of AB Volvo, Thermax Ltd. and Harvard Business School.
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Kunal Bahl
Co-founder, Snapdeal
Bahl launched ecommerce platform Snapdeal in February 2010 along with co-founder Rohit Bansal. It has received funding from prominent investors like Softbank, BlackRock, Temasek, Foxconn, Alibaba, Premji Invest, Ratan Tata, and so on. In 2017, there were rumours that the ecommerce platform would be sold to Flipkart, amid several layoffs. However, Bahl was resilient and took a bet on his company. In a lengthy presentation to Snapdeal, Bahl announced Snapdeal 2.0, a stripped-down and lean version of the ecommerce company.
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Ronnie Screwvala
Co-founder, Upgrad
Serial entrepreneur Ronnie Screwvala's rise to popularity can be charted with the growth of his media company UTV, and his movie studio that has gone on to create over 70 movie titles, won 350 awards and another 20 national awards. Now, Screwvala is an active Venture Capital/Private Equity investor and has made significant investments in various Indian startups. This is apart from running his e-learning platform Upgrad. He is also the founder of the Swades Foundation, along with his wife Zarina. The Swades Foundation is committed to focusing on improving the livelihood of people.
Santosh Desai, MD & CEO, Futurebrands also featured on the list.
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Kailash Satyarthi
Nobel Peace Laureate & Founder, Kailash Satyarthi Children's Foundation
Nobel Peace Prize winner Kailash Satyarthi has been at the forefront of the global movement to end child slavery and exploitative child labour since 1980. Child labour is a human rights issue that has staggering effects on poverty, illiteracy and humanity. Satyarthi and the grassroot movement founded by him, Bachpan Bachao Andolan (Save the Childhood Movement), have liberated more than 85,000 children from exploitation and developed a successful model for their education and rehabilitation.
Source: Global March
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CMD, Biocon Limited
A pioneer of the biotechnology industry in India and the head of the country’s leading biotechnology enterprise, Biocon, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is a highly respected businesswoman and a first-generation entrepreneur. Biocon focuses on innovation and affordability in delivering therapeutics to patients globally.
