Even as the US government is making it harder for Indian employees to work in tech jobs in the country, US companies seem to still be relying on Indian talent to lead their companies.
T-Mobile, the second largest wireless carrier in the US, has appointed IIM Ahmedabad alumnus Srini Gopalan as CEO. Gopalan, who was currently serving as the company’s Chief Operating Officer, will succeed Mike Sievert, who will move to the newly formed Vice Chairman role.
“I’m deeply honored to take on the role of T-Mobile’s next chief executive officer,” Gopalan said in a post on LinkedIn. ”I’ve long been in awe of what this company has achieved — fearlessly reinventing wireless to serve customers in ways no one thought possible. For a decade, I admired this team from afar — watching them push harder, move faster and think bigger than anyone else in this industry. And over the last several years on T-Mobile’s board and as chief operating officer, I’ve seen firsthand what makes this team extraordinary: a culture obsessed with smashing customer pain points and employees who bring an unbelievable passion to everything they do,” he added.
Gopalan, 55, had been born in India and had attended Delhi Public School, RK Puram. He’d completed his MBA from IIM Ahmedabad in 1992. After his MBA, he’d joined Unilever India as an Area Sales Manager. He’d then joined Accenture, and then joined Capital One in 1999, eventually becoming a Senior Vice President by 2009. He’d then spent a year as T-Mobile’s Chief Marketing Officer, before leaving to join Vodafone, and then Airtel, where he was the Consumer Director. For the last 8 years, Gopalan had been with Deutsche Telecom, which is a majority holder in T-Mobile. He’s now become the CEO of T-Mobile.
Gopalan becomes the latest Indian to head a prominent multinational company in the US. Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, IBM CEO Aravind Krishna, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen, Palo Alto Networks CEOs Nikesh Arora are all Indians, and had completed their undergraduate studies in India. Gopalan’s elevation comes at a time when the US has made it harder for Indian nationals to work in tech fields in the country with a $100,000 additional fee for each H-1B applicant. But as T-Mobile’s elevation of Srini Gopalan shows, US companies are still heavily relying on Indian talent to lead their businesses.