Ajaypal Singh Banga, CEO and President of MasterCard is the lone Indian CEO is Fortune’s ‘2014 Top Business’ list.
He is currently ranked at 28.
54-year-old Banga who took charge on July 1, 2010 from Robert W. Selander, is an alumna of Delhi University’s St. Stephens College and completed his MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Ahemdabad.
The son of an Army officer, Banga worked for FMCG major Nestle India for 13 years in various roles spanning from sales, general management to marketing after which he joined PepsiCo and was involved in launching their international franchisees after the Indian markets opened post liberalisation.
He subsequently worked for Citigroup for 13 years before he joined MasterCard and eventually became the chairman and chief executive officer of Citi Asia Pacific.
“Sometimes it’s about being in the right place at the right time. For MasterCard, that very well could come in the form of Apple Pay, which may finally break the barrier between consumers and mobile payment. MasterCard and Banga could benefit from increased transactions using mobile phones,” Fortune said.
Google CEO Larry Page is currently ranked at no. 1.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella at number 38 is the only other person of Indian-origin.
Nadella is now an American citizen. He studied engineering at Manipal Institute of Technology in Karnataka, before moving to the US to pursue higher studies.
“Financial results, including 12-month and three-year growth in profits and revenues, figured prominently in our analysis. We also factored in company stock performance and total shareholder returns over the same periods. Nonfinancial elements, like business influence, leadership style, and strategic initiatives, played a part in our evaluation as well,” Fortune said.
Apple CEO Tim Cook, successor to Apple’s iconic CEO Steve Jobs, features second in the rankings, followed by Gilead CEO John Martin, to round off the top three.
The list featured the top 50 CEOs of 2014.