This year set a new high: 16 Indian men picked up director seats at S&P 500 companies, according to ISS-Corporate and Equilar. The fresh names include appointees at Walmart Inc., Southwest Airlines Co., and Western Digital Corp. Only White men and women took more of the new seats. A chart titled "Record Run for Indian Men" credits ISS-Corporate for the data.
Headhunters and executives say boards are weighing CEO and operating experience more heavily. That tilt shows up in the class of 2024, where roughly two-thirds are sitting or former chief executives. Among them are executives connected with Stryker Corp., Linde Plc, and Albertsons Cos.' recently retired CEO.
Companies may be dialing back formal DEI programs, but the makeup of boards is still shifting, and Indian men in particular are moving up fast.
James Drury Partners finds the proportion of Indian men in Fortune 500 and S&P 500 boardrooms has tripled since 2018. The firm tallies 184 Indian men now serving across those companies, with 77% bringing operating or P&L credentials and roughly two-thirds having held the top job.
That executive-heavy résumé mix tracks with who is running major companies today. Indian men now helm about a dozen marquee names, including Alphabet Inc., Microsoft Corp., and Procter & Gamble Co.
Women of Indian origin have not advanced at the same clip, in part because fewer have previously been CEOs. Still, there were standout appointments this year: Indra K. Nooyi, former PepsiCo Inc. CEO, joined Honeywell International Inc.'s board, and Sonia Syngal, former Gap Inc. CEO, joined the board of Tractor Supply Inc.
Anand Eswaran, CEO of Veeam Software Corp., joined the board of F5 Inc. in April. Now 53, he moved to the US from India more than 30 years ago and says each wave of Indian professionals has benefited from paths opened after immigration changes in the 1960s. Rising to the top meant clearing tough hurdles, from competing for elite schools to proving out in operational roles. "Those are massive filters," he said.
Raj Gupta was among the early trailblazers. In 1999 he became CEO of specialty-chemical maker Rohm and Haas Co., at the time only the third Fortune 500 chief executive of Indian heritage. Across his career, he has held seats on 15 public boards - among them HP Inc. and DuPont de Nemours Inc. - as well as seven private boards.
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His earliest board role was with a specialty-gas firm in Philadelphia while he was still a contender to lead Rohm and Haas, experience his boss said would prepare him for the top job. Now 80, he says his board service is behind him and he is teaching at Wharton and Harvard.
Rakesh Sachdev's résumé mirrors the arc many followed. He arrived in the US in 1981 to work as a senior engineer at Cummins Inc., later becoming chief financial officer and then president of Asia Pacific at Arvin Meritor Inc. In the 2008 financial crisis he switched industries, joining Sigma-Aldrich Corp., moving from CFO to CEO in 2010, selling the company, and later taking another CEO role. He now chairs Axalta Coating Systems Ltd., slated to merge later this year with Dutch paint maker Akzo Nobel NV, and he says he will lead the merged company's board.
Now 70, he says he has helped bring Indian executives into boardrooms and sees them appear more frequently on director candidate lists. "It has gained momentum because Indians have done well in their professional careers and that has made them more valuable as board members," he said.
Norman Chen, CEO of the Asian American Foundation, cautions that progress for Indian men should not obscure gaps facing other Asian groups. Research has described a "bamboo ceiling" particularly affecting East Asian executives. His organization is building programs to expand opportunities for Asian directors.
The well-trodden path many Indian leaders took may be narrowing. The Trump administration has tightened immigration rules, including for the H-1B program, a route heavily tapped by Indian professionals in STEM and healthcare roles. It introduced a $100,000 fee that companies must pay to sponsor specific categories of H-1B hires for entry to the US - a rule currently under legal challenge - and floated an additional proposal with similar costs. US Citizenship and Immigration Services reports that in fiscal 2024, roughly 71% of approved H-1B petitions were for Indian-born professionals.
Sanjeev Joshipura, executive director of Indiaspora, notes that a large share of prominent Indian CEOs in the US began on student visas, moved into H-1B roles thereafter, and today have an outsize economic impact. With student visas already declining, he argues, "The rules shouldn't be made in a way that prevents America from continuing to be the primary magnet for the best talent all over the world."
Why this matters for your money: who sits in the boardroom shapes strategy, risk appetite, and CEO selection at the companies you own. That group is changing quickly, even as immigration policies could reshape the pipeline that fed today's leaders. Keep an eye on how governance evolves at the brands in your portfolio, because the skill sets boards favor now tend to show up later in how those companies execute.
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