New York: As many as five Indians have featured in this year's Fortune 40 under 40 list, an annual ranking of the most influential young people in the world of business. The five Indians in the coveted list include Dhivya Surayadevera, Vas Narasimhan, Anand Swaminathan, Apoorva Mehta and Reshma Saujani. The Fortune's 40 under 40 list for this year was topped by Adam Neuman, Co-founder and CEO, WeWork, followed by Tesla's JB Straubel and Ryan Graves, SVP of Global Operations, Uber at the second and third positions, respectively. Others in the list include Logan Green and John Zimmer of Lyft, San Francisco's prominent ride-sharing company, Cheng Wei and Jean Liu, Co-founder and President, Didi Kuaidi, a Chinese ride-hailing app major and James Park, Co-founder and CEO, Fitbit.
"There are tech names here, yes, but also stars in health care, autos, finance, food, real estate, comedy, and even ultimate fighting," Fortune said, adding that this list is "one that, rather than being about money alone, was about achievements, ambition, and influence". Among the Indians on the list, Dhivya Surayadevera was ranked fourth. The 36-year old native of Chennai has been the chief investment officer of GM Asset Management since 2013 and became its CEO in early 2014 where she manages USD 80 billion in assets across the auto-maker's retirement plans.
Vas Narasimhan, ranked 7th, works at Novartis, the giant Swiss pharmaceutical company and runs one of the industry's largest drug development programmes overseeing 9,600 employees, 143 projects, 500 ongoing clinical trials and a multi-billion-dollar budget. Anand Swaminathan, ranked 18th, is Accenture's youngest-ever global leadership council member and runs its fastest-growing business.
"Under Swaninathan's tireless direction, the USD 6 billion unit Accenture Digital is expanding revenue 30 per cent year -on-year and winning recognition for digital marketing, business analytics, and mobility projects with clients like hospitality giant Marriott International and Swiss bank UBS," Fortune said. Apoorva Mehta, ranked 23rd, is the Founder and CEO of Instacart that operates in 17 cities, partners with Whole Foods and Costco, and holds a USD 2 billion valuation. Reshma Saujani, was ranked 39, is the founder of the tech organization Girls Who Code, to help under-served girls gain the skills to pursue careers in technology and engineering.
"Backed by giants like Google and Twitter, it has helped place 10,000 high school-age girls in 34 states in 57 immersion programmes where they learn how to code, develop mobile apps, and receive mentoring from women in engineering at companies like Facebook, Goldman Sachs, and AT&T," Fortune said.
