Global IndianstoryGoogle’s $100 million man: YouTube names Neal Mohan as CEO

Google’s $100 million man: YouTube names Neal Mohan as CEO

Compiled by: Darshana Ramdev

February 18, 2023) In 2011, Twitter was in turmoil. They needed someone to revamp the product and bring in advertisers – a chief product officer, essentially. Board member David Rosenblatt had just the man in mind: Neal Mohan. So, in 2013, Twitter made him an offer and it seemed like things were going according to plan. Then Neal said no. Google had written him a big, fat cheque – $100 million in stock options, to be exact. Neal Mohan, the man described by Richard Frankel, his former boss, as a “high-end customer support representative,” was now Silicon Valley’s most valuable asset. And clearly, he has lived up to expectations. On February 17, when Susan Wojcicki announced that she was stepping down, Indian-American Neal Mohan was appointed as YouTube’s new CEO. The Global Indian joins the growing list of Indian-Americans at the helm of US’ big tech corporations.

Thank you, @SusanWojcicki. It’s been amazing to work with you over the years. You’ve built YouTube into an extraordinary home for creators and viewers. I’m excited to continue this awesome and important mission. Looking forward to what lies ahead… https://t.co/Rg5jXv1NGb

— Neal Mohan (@nealmohan) February 16, 2023

Life as YouTube’s Chief Product Officer

He’s more than earned his stripes. Ever since he took over as YouTube’s Chief Product Officer in 2015, Neal has played a pivotal role in some of the company’s top products. He is the driving force behind YouTube TV, YouTube Shorts, YouTube Premium (formerly Red), and YouTube Music.

“In a most fundamental way, my job is twofold. I’m responsible for all our products – the YouTube experience on mobile phones, desktops, laptops and large living room screens – everything that viewers use to connect with their favourite creators,” he told Lew Later last year. Then, there “things that creators use – this includes YouTubers, musicians, artists and traditional media companies.” Finally, there he is responsible for “trust and safety, community guidelines – the rules of the road, so to speak.” Simply put, it comes down to “helping my teams make the best deicisions on behalf of that ecosystem. It includes our viewers, users, creators and advertisors.”

Early life

Mohan was born in India in 1975 and moved to the US a few years later. “I had always been interested in technology, even before college,” he said, in a 2022 interview with Greylock. “I always knew that working would computers would be my career path.” His ambition took him to Stanford University, where he studied Electrical Engineering “and a lot of CS classes, basically.”

Neal Mohan (Photo: CNET)

He graduated from Stanford and entered the workforce at what he describes as a “pivotal moment.” This was the start of the golden age in Silicon Valley – “the dawn of the internet, really. Netscape had just come out with its browsers and was a Silicon Valley startup. There were lots of companies excited about making the transition.” It was a fortunate turn of events for him. “When you’re able to start your career at the inflexsion of a big technology change, there are lots of interesting opportunities.

Mohan began his career as a ‘management consultant, working with tech businesses and finding ways to bring this new technology, the ‘internet’ to Fortune 500 companies. He realised, “very quickly,” that he wanted to be part of these startups himself. He did a short stint at Andersen Consulting (Accenture) and in 1997, So, he joined Net Gravity, kickstarting his career in the technology business. That company was acquired by advertising startup DoubleClick later that year. It’s where he met David Rosenblatt. He played a pivotal role in Google’s $3.1 billion acquisition of the company.

DoubleClick Inc.

This was the great revolution in democratising information. “It’s about fundamentally powering the creation of and consumption of all this information,” regardless of whether the user was on a low-speed dial-up in some corner of the world, or a high-speed connection in Silicon Valley. “You have access to the same technology,” he said.

That’s where DoubleClick Inc. came in – if information was to be provided to everyone with access to an internet connection, preferably for free, it needed a sustainable revenue model. The internet was a medium too, just like print or TV – and those ran on ads. DoubleClick was at the forefront of developing and providing Internet ad services, through technology products and services that were sold to ad agencies and the mass media. They went on to work with businesses like Microsoft, General Motors, Coca-Cola, Apple Inc, Nike and L’Oreal.

The Google acquisition

In 2003, he quit DoubleClick to return to Stanford University for an MBA. The company was having solvency troubles at the time. In 2003, he quit DoubleClick to return to Stanford University for an MBA. The company was having solvency troubles at the time and in 2004, David Rosenblatt was brought in as CEO. He asked Mohan to rejoin as soon as he was done with his MBA. The company was acquired by Google for $3.1 billion in 2007, with Mohan being a key driver of the deal. He joined Google a year later, in 2008.

Life at Alphabet Inc.

Having always worked at the intersection of media and technology, developing a roadmap for advertising models in the digital age, Mohan became invaluable to Google very quickly. Between 2008 and 2015, he served as a Senior VP of Display and Video Advertising.

He was pivotal to developing the company’s ad products and helping to grow YouTube revenue. Mohan became a well-known name in Silicon Valley and when Twitter needed a new man to revamp their product, which was falling apart, they turned to the internet ads savant. Mohan has played an important role in some of Google’s most important ad products, including AdWords, DoubleClick and Google Analytics. He was also responsible for the automation of buying and selling digital ad inventory.”

Transforming YouTube

In 2015, Mohan joined Alphabet Inc subsidiary YouTube as its Chief Product officer. He has been responsible for the livestreaming service YouTube TV, YouTube Music, YouTube Premium and YouTube Shorts.

Under him, YouTube’s creator economy boomed. In 2022, Indian YouTubers were contributing around Rs 6,800 crores annually to the country’s GDP. “The creator economy in India is truly flourishing,” Mohan remarked. The monetisation model changed the content creation site – as of 2019, there were two billion users on YouTube, watching 1 billion hours of videos every day. YouTube ad revenues were around $19.77 billion in 2020.

With Susan Wojcicki announcing her resignation to focus on her health and personal life, Mohan will take over as YouTube’s fourth CEO.

Life at home

Neal Mohan and his wife, Heema Sareem Mohan

Mohan is married to Heema Sareem Mohan, who is a spokesperson for Democratic State Senator Joe Simitian. She specialises in reforming the juvenile justice system and education policies and does extensive non-profit work. Born and raised in New York, she mvoed to Silicon Valley to be with her husband.

The couple resides in the Bay Area, in one of San Francisco’s most upscale localities, with their three kids.

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Nikita Karizma: From dressing Lady Gaga to crafting a fashion legacy

(October 10, 2024) Nikita Karizma was a student at the London College of Fashion when the call came from Lady Gaga. The popstar, who is known for supporting young talent in fashion, wanted Nikita to style her. "It was a real 'pinch me' moment," Nikita smiles. “There I was, heading off to Lady Gaga's studio to drop off my student work." It set the ball rolling on Nikita's career as a designer and entrepreneur, and she caught the attention of the talent scouts, who were already keeping an eye out for talented students from the London College of Fashion. "Fashion stylists started communicating with me and began giving me orders for musicians," Nikita says. Nikita's second big break came just as she graduated from the London College of Fashion, when she received a styling request from the UK's biggest girl band, Little Mix. She used the money she earned to launch her own eponymous designer line, NIKITA KARIZMA. The designer has gone on to dress a galaxy of stars across Hollywood, the UK and Bollywood, including Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner and Shilpa Shetty. "I like seeing people spread a positive message," she tells Global Indian, and that's exactly what she

lobalindian.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Global Indian, and that's exactly what she helps them do through fashion. "Your style says a lot about who you are and what you stand for in the world." Nikita has scaled up her business with a commercial line, KARIZMA, and recently purchased her first property to house her collections. To her, fashion is expression and empowerment combined, her style a fusion of understated Western influences and the bold, colourful cuts and prints of Indian design.

[caption id="attachment_57652" align="aligncenter" width="267"] Nikita Karizma | Indian fashion designer in UK | Global Indian Nikita Karizma[/caption]

A legacy in fashion

For as long as she can remember, Nikita Karizma's life has been about fashion and textiles. She even recalls the day former Miss America Nina Davuluri, the first Indian-origin woman to hold the coveted title, walked into her mother's store in London. "We dressed her too," she says. "In one campaign, my mum had Aishwarya Rai before she became Miss World." Her mother's store specialised in wedding lehengas, and often styled celebrities for Asian magazines. The business of fashion was dinner-time conversation, and Nikita also began working for her parents early on. Even today, Nikita is at the intersection of creativity, entrepreneurship and profit, and of bridging her family’s rich, varied cultural heritage, with roots in India, Kenya and the UK.

Fashion is in her DNA, and the family has been in it for some six decades now. It began with Nikita's grandparents, who ran their own clothing store in Kenya. When they migrated to the UK, they resumed operations there, specialises in Indian sarees, catering to the ever-growing Asian community in London. Although the family has strong ties to Kenya, Nikita was born and raised in the UK, growing up on London's Ealing Road, "which feels like Mumbai," she laughs. "A lot of immigrants live in this neighbourhood, you can hear Indian languages being spoken around you."

Nikita began work young, helping her parents out at their London store. "I would meet customers, go on trips to do the buying and talk to sales people," she says. They sold Indian clothes to the diaspora, making outfits for occasions like weddings. Her early exposure to fashion, therefore, came with strong ties to her Indian heritage, which she maintains to this day, although her own clothing lines are predominantly western. "People ask me why I didn't launch an Indian fashion line, but my parents have already done that, and done it well. There was no need for me to duplicate what they were already doing." To her surprise, she found orders pouring in from the South Asian community. "It was only when Bollywood stylists started requesting them that I realised how much my culture is part of me," she says.

Nikita Karizma | Indian fashion designer in UK | Global Indian

The celeb life

If Nikita were to claim a niche, it would likely be designing for musicians and pop stars. "I love celebrity and popular culture," she says. "I love seeing music spread around the world like wildfire, especially when it spreads a positive message." Her exposure to celebrity culture came fairly early, starting with her parents. When she was 16, Nikita began working for Sony TV as a presenter. "I was sent to music video sets and would interview celebrities." She was very shy then, but used the opportunity to build confidence, going on to interview stars like Hrithik Roshan and Rakesh Roshan, Celina Jaitley and Rishi Rich. "I began to understand this world and also to understand celebrities as human beings," she says. "It's hard for them to connect with everyone but at the end of the day, everybody wants to be loved and understood."

The business of design

A natural leader and entrepreneur, Nikita understood, by the time she went to college, the practicalities, the cash flows and the costs of running a fashion business. It stood her good stead. "A lot of designers go into fashion school and become very strong designers. But they don't really train you on how to run a business at fashion school. For me, that came through my upbringing," she says. When the time came for university, she chose the London College of Fashion.

The university was well-connected in industry circles and Nikita Karizma was still a bright-eyed student when she received a styling request that blew her away, from Lady Gaga. The popstar, who is known for supporting young designers, went on to be styled by Nikita.

Finding strength in diversity

Nikita knew at the outset that she wanted to have her own clothing line. She used the money she earned from the Little Mix commission to start her own business. Although it seems an obvious choice, considering her family’s line of work, Nikita was still a young, woman of colour trying to make a mark in the highly competitive, often cut-throat world of fashion. "In fashion school, I was the only Indian girl. When I go to networking events, I'm still the only Indian girl in the room. This was the case both in the UK and in America," Nikita remarks. She found her "cultural creative tribe" in the Indian stylists who began reaching out to her. This was how her designer line, Nikita Karizma, came to be.

Nikita Karizma | Indian fashion designer in UK | Global Indian

The young designer remained unfazed by the fact that she was different. "My family prepared me for it. They told me not to worry about being in a minority and to just focus on my talent and skillset," she says, adding, "That's the only thing which matters in the long term. Ultimately, it comes down to your product." These were also the early days of social media, and influencers weren't really a thing. "It wasn't a desirable career path and a job. People didn't understand the path I had taken." This was also before the world had taken to posting every detail of their lives on social media. With very little documentation, the fashion industry remained insulated from the rest of the world. Things have come a long way since, and now, being a fashion designer is a highly sought-after job. "These days, when I post videos of what I do at work, they are seen as aspirational. But it's also a saturated and competitive market," she says. She kept her head down and focussed on her skillsets, and on creating the best products. "Ultimately, if your work is good, people want to wear them. As long as that happens, I know I can carry on in the long term."

Follow Nikita Karizma on Instagram

Visit Health: How Vaibhav Singh disrupted healthcare in India

(February 13, 2023) One day in the summer of 2016, when Vaibhav Singh and his three pals walked in to the New Delhi office of marquee tech company MapmyIndia to seek guidance from its owner Rakesh Verma, for their healthcare startup, the final semester students from BITS Pilani left a lasting impression on Verma. A BITS-Pilani alumnus himself, Verma was moved by the youngsters’ zeal to bring about a change in the country’s healthcare systems. Less than 24 hours later, Vaibhav’s phone rang. The caller was Verma, who offered to fund their healthcare startup. Pleasantly surprised, the four friends got down to work. That was the birth of Visit Health — a holistic healthcare service platform that provides quality healthcare experience anytime, anywhere. [caption id="attachment_34959" align="aligncenter" width="484"] Vaibhav SIngh, co-founder, Visit Health[/caption] Holistic healthcare “The wide gap in wellness and primary health care in India is what led us to start Visit Health. Today, we stand as a full-pledged primary health care service provider and have filled that gap,” smiles Vaibhav Singh, managing director and co-founder of Visit Health, in an exclusive conversation with Global Indian. From wellness to diet plans, management, nutritionists, dermatologists, general physicians and psychologists — the

er of Visit Health, in an exclusive conversation with Global Indian.

From wellness to diet plans, management, nutritionists, dermatologists, general physicians and psychologists — the fully-integrated 360-degree healthcare platform, now has the best fleet of medical experts across the country.

“We have more than a 2000 plus specialists across 20 plus verticals. We built our own network of 36,000 plus doctors who are sitting in the OPD department of hospitals or at the private clinics,” informs Vaibhav, who was named in Forbes 30 under 30, Asia, in the field of Healthcare & Science.

Born in Patna, Vaibhav wanted to become an IAS officer. “There were quite a few people in my family who were bureaucrats. So that was the passion back then,” informs Vaibhav, who completed his schooling from DAV Public School. He was strong in academics and was a die-hard cricket fan who spent hours each day playing the game.

Transformation on campus

After completing his 12^th grade, he got into BITS Pilani from where he did his Master of Science (Hons) Chemistry and Bachelor in Pharmacy between 2021 and 2016. He describes it as the transformational period.

“BITS Pilani was very different from the traditional colleges. It had a flexible curriculum, and you choose your own timetable. It had everything for the overall personality development and there was a strong entrepreneurial environment in the campus,” says Vaibhav, pointing to the large number of startups coming from BITS.

The prestigious institution also has a strong alumni connect. “You will come across BITS alumni in almost every field, who will be ready to pull you up and give you guidance,” says Vaibhav, who also stood for students union elections in his second year and was elected general secretary.

Since all the activities in the college were student-run, it enabled him to have interactions with people both on and off the campus. “I was involved in raising sponsorships, inviting colleges from different cities, give presentations among other work. All these experiences played a big role in my career,” says the passionate billiards player, who was also the captain of the Pool team in college.

Foray into entrepreneurship

When he began his fourth year, he and his friends decided it was time to get down to some serious business. “We started selling ERP (enterprise resource planning) solutions to Ministry of Defence. People would charge crores for it but we offered the solutions for a few lakhs,” says Vaibhav, who also interned for two months as a Product Manager at Biocon in Bengaluru. During this stint, he visited seven metro cities in India to study the market before the launch of a new product. He also assisted the business development team in deciding the key parameters of the product.

Finally, in 2016, Visit Health happened. “There were lots of challenges. Primary healthcare was not very well known when we were first setting up. There was only one other company doing it,” recalls Vaibhav. However, he teamed up with three close friends - Anurag Prasad, Shashvat Tripathi and Chetan Anand, who combined their expertise and launched the company.

“We initially started with mental health support. So we built a Visit app where you could come and talk to a psychologist or a counsellor in complete privacy and at convenient times,” says Vaibhav who was awarded as the “Youth of the year” in the field of healthcare services by the Bihar government in November 2016.

Disrupting the healthcare space

He says the chief responsibility at Visit Health is helping users make important decisions about their own health and well-being as well as that of their loved one’s health. “Finding the best doctors and organisations to collaborate with is our second responsibility which is tied-in with the first,” says Vaibhav, who feels that the inconvenience of travelling and the hassles of meeting up with a doctor often ends in people self-medicating. “People tend to postpone their visits to the doctors for one or the other reason until it becomes absolutely necessary.”

Their clients include 260-plus large, medium and large corporates including IBM, Axis Bank and Oracle who have deployed Visit app for giving primary healthcare benefits to their employees. “We also have more than 6000 plus SMEs who use the app. Anything you do on the platform, you get rewarded for that and redeem those rewards for multiple day to day products of your choice from our marketplace. So that creates a lot of engagement,” he points out.

What started with four people is now a 220 plus member team based out of Gurugram, Noida, Bangalore and Mumbai.

Hope during the pandemic

They saw the full potential of their company during the pandemic, when people began to take their health a lot more seriously. “During covid, we were doing more than 240 consults every day. We deployed hotline numbers for the ones who were not able to use the app,” says Vaibhav.

Along the journey, Visit Health went on to raise more investments from some of the reputed companies including Snapdeal, Murugappa group and Policy Bazar. Even the Co-founder of Twitter Biz Stone invested in the company.

When he’s not working, Vaibhav likes to travel, play pool and watch “raw and real series” like Blacklist.

Meena Harris: A ‘phenomenal’ voice inspired by Kamala Harris

(September 18, 2023) Meenakshi Ashley Harris, the US based lawyer, entrepreneur, and children’s book author is more commonly addressed as Meena Harris. The daughter of Maya Harris and the niece of the current US Vice President, Kamala Harris, Meena extensively advocates for women’s rights. Her prominence soared in 2020 when she actively supported her aunt's US election campaign. This period also saw the release of her debut book, ‘Kamala and Maya’s Big Idea’, which centres on the lives of her mother, aunt, and grandmother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris. With a strong presence in social media, Meena, a Harvard Law School graduate, and mother of two fervently engages in discussions about social issues and human rights activism. She established the Phenomenal Woman Action Campaign, a women-focused initiative, as part of her 'Phenomenal' fashion label. The label's name is inspired by the poem ‘Phenomenal Woman’ by the iconic Black poet Maya Angelou. [caption id="attachment_45050" align="aligncenter" width="506"] Meena Harris[/caption] The entrepreneur-author recently launched a new book, ‘Ambitious Girl’, inspired by Kamala’s drive to support ambitious women. “As a mom to black daughters, diversity and representation in children’s books have always been important to me,” Meena said in an interview with People Magazine. Proud of

t: 400;">The entrepreneur-author recently launched a new book, ‘Ambitious Girl’, inspired by Kamala’s drive to support ambitious women. “As a mom to black daughters, diversity and representation in children’s books have always been important to me,” Meena said in an interview with People Magazine.

Proud of Indian lineage

The ancestral village of Meena’s maternal family is situated in Tamil Nadu. She frequently talks about her Indian lineage across various social media platforms. When an American political figure made a derogatory comment about Kamala Harris' Indian name during her election campaign, Meena Harris was among those who openly expressed their pride in their non-American names. Using the hashtag "#MyNameIs," she shared, "I’m named after the Hindu goddess Meenakshi, as well as my great-great-grandmother. I come from a lineage of resilient women who instilled in me a sense of pride in my cultural background." This garnered huge support from the diaspora.

The same year, Harris and Indian-American actress Mindy Kaling exchanged affectionate messages during the Diwali festivities, sparking a joyful atmosphere underscoring Indian heritage on Twitter in the backdrop of the festive mood.

Indians in USA | Meena Harris | Global Indian

The ‘Phenomenal’ story

Meena worked at Facebook and Uber before turning full-time to entrepreneurship and starting her fashion label.

Initially, it had started as a modest side venture selling ‘Phenomenal Woman’ t-shirts but had tasted success since the beginning. She had sold 2,500 T-shirts on the very first day. The profits were directed towards women-centric organisations like Girls Who Code and Planned Parenthood.

Subsequently, the company evolved into a big apparel brand, expanding its product range to include sweatshirts, leggings, socks, and bodysuits adorned with impactful statements such as ‘Black Lives Matter’ and ‘Phenomenally Indigenous’.

A sweatshirt collection emblazoned with Kamala’s viral quote, ‘I’m Speaking’ is an all-time bestseller of the fashion label. “A statement T-shirt can seem so small and insignificant, especially compared to the enormity of the social change that’s happening before our eyes,” Meena told People magazine. “But there is substance and meaning behind it. And the most basic meaning is people proclaiming to the world that they are worthy, deserving of dignity and proud.”

[caption id="attachment_45053" align="aligncenter" width="601"] Indians in USA | Meena Harris | Global Indian Throwback image: Meena Harris when she was a kid with her mom, grandmother and aunt Kamala Harris[/caption]

She calls her apparel ‘socially conscious’ because of the sustainability factors attached to it. Celebrities like Kerry Washington and Storm Reid are some of the brand's loyal customers.

As Meena’s aim is to highlight issues such as racism and oppression faced by marginalised communities through her brand, she remarked, “It serves as a reminder that the world must continually witness and acknowledge these concerns until complete accountability, equality, and justice are achieved for everyone, rather than just a select few who are privileged.”

From apparels to book publishing

About a year ago Meena’s organisation ‘Phenomenal’ expanded into book publishing by getting into a collaboration with Hachette Book Group. This partnership is dedicated to identifying and cultivating literary works from voices that are often underrepresented in both fiction and nonfiction, catering to audiences of all ages, from children to adults.

“We know first-hand that audiences are looking for more stories from authors who, too often, do not receive the meaningful, intimate support that Phenomenal will provide to discover literary talent and position their works for success,” she said.

Indians in USA | Meena Harris | Global Indian

Apart from ‘Kamala and Maya’s Big Idea’ and ‘Ambitious Girl’, Meena has also authored ‘The Truth about Mrs. Claus’. “I’m proud of this book because it’s so much more than a cute holiday story - it’s about finding truth in purpose while acknowledging important traditions; it’s about intergenerational relationships, and finding your way, even when it means reshaping other’s expectations,” she remarked adding “Changing course and challenging norms can feel scary. I hope every child who picks up this book has someone in their corner as they forge new paths ahead.”

With Phenomenal’s book publishing division, Meena’s goal is to present stories by authors whose voices can help bring a change in society so that the world becomes closer-knit.

On the personal front, Meena enjoys support from her close-knit family. Her partner Nikolas Ajagu, had even taken a short sabbatical from work to take care of their children. The couple had met while working together at Facebook. They are parents of two daughters who often grab the limelight for lighting up the day of their grand-aunt Kamala Harris. The US vice president is not their only fan. The former first lady, Hillary Clinton had once tweeted, “Meeting Kamala Harris's grand-niece was a highlight of an already pretty great day." Looking at who it came from, the proud mother ‘actually sobbed’ reading the post.

Meena Harris is hugely inspired by her aunt Kamala Harris. They share a great bond and also happen to share the same birthday.

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Rewriting the rules: CEO Nikesh Arora’s unconventional path to billionaire status

(January 9, 2024) In a twist on the usual tale of billionaires rising through entrepreneurship, the global rich list now includes a tech CEO who isn't a company founder. Meet Nikesh Arora, the former Google-employee-turned-CEO of cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks Inc. Unlike many on the billionaire's roster, Arora isn't a company originator, yet he's made it into the exclusive billionaire's club. Nikesh received a substantial $125 million stock and options compensation package when he took on the role of chief executive officer in 2018. Since then, Palo Alto Networks Inc. has seen a remarkable surge in its share price, more than quadrupling in the wake of increased demand for cybersecurity software. According to Bloomberg, the Global Indian's initial stake of $125 million is now valued at a staggering $830 million. When one factors in substantial pay awards from his earlier career, Arora's overall net worth stands at an impressive $1.5 billion. This distinctive position makes him a noteworthy figure as a non-founder billionaire tech CEO - the only one after Apple's Tim Cook - marking a shift from the usual entrepreneurial path to wealth. Talking about the exceptional growth of his company, the CEO said, "Today, we're the largest

mpressive $1.5 billion. This distinctive position makes him a noteworthy figure as a non-founder billionaire tech CEO - the only one after Apple's Tim Cook - marking a shift from the usual entrepreneurial path to wealth.

Talking about the exceptional growth of his company, the CEO said, "Today, we're the largest cybersecurity company, we've outstripped our competitors. When I joined we identified cloud and AI as the overarching new technology trend for the coming decade. So, we designed our portfolio, bought 15 companies, and spent $4 billion. That was unique in cybersecurity, most companies would capture the trend of the moment, figure the business, and then as the trend shifted, a new cybersecurity company was born."

From square one

Born in Ghaziabad to Indian Air Force officer Jagdish Kumar Arora, Nikesh was a curious child, who loved to experiment with the things surrounding him. Nikesh's mother was a huge influence in his life. "My mother had a master's in mathematics and Sanskrit - which was a very big thing back in those days. She was all about ensuring I always put myself into learning something new. So, I and my sister not just learnt from the book, but by experimenting with things. I also moved around a lot - maybe to six different schools before I graduated high school, that also was a great learning process," he said.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1SExW_Erpz0

A student of The Air Force School (Subroto Park), Nikesh went on to pursue a bachelor's in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, BHU in Varanasi. In 1990, Nikesh moved to the United States of America to pursue an MBA from Northeastern University. "It was one of those years when the recession was in swing. My degree from Northeastern University wasn't as good in those days as it is ranked today. I was looking for a job in finance, which I was told I would get mostly on Wall Street. So, I found the college's Alumni directory and wrote to over 450 contacts requesting them for a job. I had graduated top of my class, I thought someone would want to hire me," laughed the CEO, adding, "Interestingly, I received 450 replies from everyone I wrote to saying 'Thank you for writing to us, but no thank you.'. I still have all those letters with me, telling me that I don't qualify for a job."

His journey in the financial sector commenced at Fidelity Investments. In 2000, Nikesh founded T-Motion, a subsidiary under Deutsche Telekom focused on delivering value-added services for the 3G Services of Deutsche Telekom. Within a few years, T-Motion seamlessly became an integral part of T-Mobile's core services.

Climbing to the top

Interestingly, Google recognised his talents in 2004. Over the next decade, Nikesh served as VP of Europe Operations (2004-07), as President, of Europe, the Middle East, and Africa from 2007 to 2009, and finally as President of Global Sales Operations and Business Development from 2009-10. "I met several amazing people at Google. When I joined the company was still figuring out how to organise its Europe operations, and I met Lawrence Edward Page and Sergey Brin - the co-founders of Google - for my initial interview. And I got the job," shares the CEO.

[caption id="attachment_48107" align="aligncenter" width="550"] CEO | Nikesh Arora | Global Indian Nikesh with U.S. Ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland[/caption]

Contrary to many expectations, Nikesh departed from his role as senior vice president and chief business officer at Google in 2014 after a decade of service. He made a significant move to SoftBank Corp, taking on the positions of President and Chief Operating Officer. During his tenure, Arora set a Japanese record by receiving a total compensation exceeding $200 million.

Nikesh Arora’s recipe for success: Keep on learning

Sharing his mantra for success, the CEO said in an interview, "The one thing that has kept me going and has inspired me is that I have always found myself in situations where I am learning. Half the stuff that I do in any job that I have had, is stuff that I have never done before. I spent a lot of time learning about cybersecurity when I joined Palo Alto Networks Inc., and in fact, I am still learning. Back when I was at Google, I worked very hard on learning how marketing is done, and later at SoftBank I learnt how to do investment banking. And that is what is exciting for me - being able to go to work every day and thinking that I can master a skill I have never worked on before."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aykoBDLhsLQ

Currently, as the CEO and Chairman of Palo Alto Networks, Nikesh is looking to evolve his company's platforms. "I believe the industry is still in the early stages of this transformation. At Palo Alto, we are beginning to think about a long-term cybersecurity strategy and starting to build longer-term cybersecurity architectures to create this integrated platform, which gives a better outcome," shared the CEO.

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Who is Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar? The scientist after whom Elon Musk named his son

(December 8, 2023) Early this November, a conversation between billionaire Elon Musk and India's IT Minister, Rajeev Chandrasekhar at AI Safety Summit, UK, unearthed a revelation. The 52-year-old disclosed that his son with Shivon Zilis has an Indian connect. He bears the middle name "Chandrasekar," a homage to the Nobel Laureate Professor Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar. Making the revelation, Rajeev Chandrasekhar tweeted, "Look who i bumped into at #AISafetySummit at Bletchley Park, UK. @elonmusk shared that his son with @shivon has a middle name "Chandrasekhar" - named after 1983 Nobel physicist Prof S Chandrasekhar." Look who i bumped into at #AISafetySummit at Bletchley Park, UK.@elonmusk shared that his son with @shivon has a middle name "Chandrasekhar" - named after 1983 Nobel physicist Prof S Chandrasekhar pic.twitter.com/S8v0rUcl8P — Rajeev Chandrasekhar 🇮🇳 (@Rajeev_GoI) November 2, 2023 Replying to Rajeev Chandrasekhar's tweet, Shivon Zilis tweeted, "Haha, yes, that’s true. We call him Sekhar for short, but the name was chosen in honour of our children’s heritage and the amazing Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar." Indian scientist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1983 "for his theoretical studies of the physical processes of importance to the structure and evolution of the stars." Global Indian puts the

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Replying to Rajeev Chandrasekhar's tweet, Shivon Zilis tweeted, "Haha, yes, that’s true. We call him Sekhar for short, but the name was chosen in honour of our children’s heritage and the amazing Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar."

Indian scientist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1983 "for his theoretical studies of the physical processes of importance to the structure and evolution of the stars." Global Indian puts the spotlight on the Indian physicist.

The child prodigy

It was in the Pre-Independent India that Chandrasekhar was born into a free-thinking and Tamil speaking Brahmin family in Lahore to a civil servant father CS Ayyar. For him and his siblings, education began at home where their mother Sitalakshmi taught them Tamil and English, and their father would take the charge of teaching arithmetic and English before leaving for work every day. At the age of eight, he moved to Madras with his family as his father was promoted to the role of a deputy accountant general, and by 1921, he started going to a regular school. In the second year of his school, he was introduced to algebra and geometry, and he was so fascinated by the subjects that he ended up devouring the books the summer before the start of the school.

[caption id="attachment_47310" align="aligncenter" width="689"] Subramanyam Chandrasekhar | Global Indian Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar[/caption]

This interest led him to Presidency College in 1925, where he studied physics, maths, chemistry, Sanskrit and English. While his interest in physics and maths kept going, he was also inspired by S Ramanujan who had gone to England and was counted among the world’s most distinguished mathematicians. Though he eyed mathematics honours, his father was keen that his son too becomes a civil servant. But it was Chandrasekhar's mother who backed him up and asked him to follow his heart. Chandrasekhar opted for Physics honours in order to placate his father because his paternal uncle CV Raman was a noted physicist who had won a Nobel Prize in 1930.

The discovery that led to Nobel Prize

At the age of 17, he spent a summer working in his uncle's lab but soon realised that experimental physics wasn't his calling. However, in those days he befriended one of Raman's colleagues who introduced him to the work of Arnold Sommerfeld, one among a group of theorists revolutionising the field of physics through the principles of quantum mechanics. This group also had Ralph H Folwer who helped Chandrasekhar publish his first professional paper in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Towards the end of his college, he was offered a scholarship from Govt of India to study in England, and in 1930, he set off sail for the University of Cambridge. It was during his voyage that the 19-year-old, while reading physics publications, came across an insight that led him to win a Nobel Prize in 1983.

Almost seven decades ago astronomers saw a white dwarf for the first time. It's a tiny, hot, and super dense leftover from a star that ran out of fuel. But something didn't add up—this object should have collapsed under its own gravity. Fowler, who was going to be Chandra's teacher for a Ph.D. at Cambridge, figured out the mystery by using quantum theory to explain why the white dwarf didn't collapse. He explained that when the nuclear energy source in the center of a star such as the Sun is exhausted, it collapses to form a white dwarf, and he demonstrated that there is an upper limit — now called the Chandrasekhar limit — to the mass of a white dwarf star.

Subramanyan Chandrasekhar | Global Indian

Moreover, up until that time scientists used to think that when a star used up all its fuel, it would become a cold ball of ashes—a white dwarf star. Chandra's math proved that a white dwarf heavier than the sun couldn't exist. Instead, it would collapse forever into an incredibly tiny point with infinite density. This collapse would create something called a black hole, a place in space where nothing, not even light, could escape. Chandra's work was the first undeniable proof, backed by math, that black holes, as we now call them, had to be real.

The controversy that changed it all

Excited about his discovery, he thought that he would be welcomed with open arms in Cambridge, however, his hoped were dashed as the scientists ignored his discovery. Depressed, he continued and finished his doctorate in 1933. The same year he also won a fellowship to continue his work at Cambridge. Feeling encouraged by these achievements, he went back to studying what happens to stars in the future. Surprisingly, the well-known Sir Arthur Stanley Eddington, a leader in astrophysics, started visiting him often to check on his progress.

Encouraged by his support, Chandrasekhar prepared a paper for a meeting of the Royal Astronomical Society in London in 1935 that was to have all the leading figures in astrophysics in attendance. He presented the paper, showing a chart that if a star was heavier than a certain amount, it would definitely shrink away to nothing and even more. However, Eddington didn't back Chandrasekhar's conclusions and even stating that it has no basis in reality. His reputation was so strong that nobody felt brave enough to disagree with him. Chandrasekhar wasn't even allowed a chance to respond. The argument continued for many years in papers and during scientific meetings.

Subramanyam Chandrasekhar | Global Indian

The confrontation had a lasting effect on Chandrasekhar, who for decades, didn't follow up on his discovery and even turned to a different field, and took up a position in University of Chicago. A few decades later, scientists trying to make the hydrogen bomb noticed that it resembled an exploding star. In 1966, at the Livermore National Laboratory in California, scientists started using computer codes for both astrophysics and hydrogen bombs. This breakthrough led the scientific community to accept that a star could indeed collapse and turn into a black hole.

Six years later, scientists identified the first black hole, named Cygnus X-1. Since then, many more black holes have been discovered. This meant that, 40 years after Chandrasekhar's first discovery, he was proven right, and Eddington was proven wrong. Chandra received the Nobel Prize in 1983 for his research on white dwarfs.

Subramanyam Chandrasekhar | Global Indian

The scientist breathed his last in 1995 and four years later, NASA's premier X-ray observatory was named the Chandra X-ray Observatory in his honour.

And now the Nobel laureate is again in news as Elon Musk has named his son after Chandrasekhar. His groundbreaking contributions to astrophysics, particularly his work on the Chandrasekhar limit, significantly advanced our understanding of stellar evolution. Musk's choice to honour this scientist underscores the enduring impact of scientific pioneers and the importance of recognising their invaluable contributions to humanity.

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