32 Indian-origin executives on EMpower top 100 Minority Executives List

The 2019 edition of the EMpower and Yahoo Finance top 100 Ethnic Minority Executives List featured 32 people of Indian-origin.

(Clockwise from top left) Ajay Banga, president and CEO of MasterCard, Leena Nair, chief HR officer at Unilever, Jagdeep Rai, Barclays Bank Plc director and head of corporate banking in Heathrow and South London, Kamel Hothi, British banker and financier, Dr Raj Patel, head of labour at Sainsbury’s supermarket chain in the UK and Sanjay Bhandari, EY partner. Photo courtesy: EMpower
(Clockwise from top left) Ajay Banga, president and CEO of MasterCard, Leena Nair, chief HR officer at Unilever, Jagdeep Rai, Barclays Bank Plc director and head of corporate banking in Heathrow and South London, Kamel Hothi, British banker and financier, Dr Raj Patel, head of labour at Sainsbury’s supermarket chain in the UK and Sanjay Bhandari, EY partner. Photo courtesy: EMpower

The seven Indian-origin executives in the top 20 are:

  • Ajay Banga, president and CEO of MasterCard (1)
  • Leena Nair, chief HR officer at Unilever (5)
  • Sanjay Bhandari, EY partner (7)
  • Jagdeep Rai, Barclays Bank Plc director and head of corporate banking in Heathrow and South London (14)
  • Dr Raj Patel, head of labour at Sainsbury’s supermarket chain in the UK (15)
  • Kamel Hothi, British banker and financier (16)
  • Nazreen Visram, the head of charities at Barclays (20)

The EMpower Ethnic Minority Role Model Lists, supported by Yahoo Finance, showcase executives within at least three levels from the chief executives at large companies. They also feature leaders of smaller organisations who are breaking down barriers and working hard to smash the ceiling for ethnic minorities in the UK, Ireland, Europe and the United States and Canada.

All of the ethnic minority leaders were nominated by peers and colleagues. Nominations were then reviewed by EMpower’s judging panel who scored them on the influence of their role, their impact on ethnic minority inclusion inside and outside the workplace, and their business achievements to finalise the rankings.

The other Indian-origin executives in the 100-person list include: 

  • Suresh Raj, Vision7 International chief business development officer (21)
  • Mitul Shah, Deloitte LLP partner and EMEA Reward Leader (23)
  • Mandeep Heer, Telefonica O2 UK director of people strategy and transformation (25)
  • Mandhir Singh, BP chief operating officer of BP Lubricants (40)
  • Raj Verma, Sodexo senior vice president of human resources (44)
  • Rupal Kantaria, Oliver Wyman director (46)
  • Rob Mukherjee, EveryCloud Security director of transformation (47)
  • Naren Patel, Primesight Ltd. CEO (49)
  • Clifford Chance, partner, Habib Motani (53)
  • Madhavi Reddy, head of digital business services of UKI at Fujitsu Services UK (58)
  • Nadun Muthukumarana, partner at Deloitte (59)
  • Vidisha Joshi, managing partner at Hodge Jones & Allen Solicitors (60)
  • Jatin Patel, TSB products and digital director (63); 
  • Gautam Bhattacharyya, Reed Smith LLP equity partner (70) 
  • Ajay Khindria, IBM global client director (72)
  • Anit Chandarana, group director of business planning and strategy at Network Rail (74)
  • Shanika Amarasekara, British Business Bank general counsel and company secretary (81)
  • Sujata Bhatia, senior vice president of merchant services in Europe at American Express (87)
  • Kam Pooni, CEO at Glyconics Ltd. (91)
  • Dr Bijna K Dasani, head of architecture and innovation at Lloyds Banking Group (92)
  • Rajesh Gupta, Sainsbury’s Bank head of trading for Argos Financial Services (94)
  • Kalpana Shah, chair and non-executive director at RiverStone Managing Agency (95)
  • Sanjeev Sharma, chief property portfolio officer and non-executive director at M&G Real Estate Ltd. (98)
  • Hina Nagarajan, managing director of Africa emerging markets at Diageo Plc. (99)