4 Indian-Origin Youngsters in Fortune’s Most Influential People in Business!

It is indeed a proud moment for India, as four people of Indian origin are among Fortune’s 40 of the most influential and inspiring young people in business under the age of 40, reports the Financial Express.

The list contains heavyweight names like Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, and Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom.

So, who are the four Indian-origin people on the list?

1. Dhivya Suryadevara, CEO General Motors

Chennai-born Dhivya made history when she became the first female CFO in the 110-year history of General Motors. The 39-year-old completed her Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Commerce at the University of Madras, and when she was 22, travelled to the US to attend Harvard Business School, where she obtained an MBA. After graduating, she bagged an internship at the World Bank, then worked with UBS as an investment banker, and joined the Detroit-based automobile giant in 2005.

2. Anjali Sud, CEO of Vimeo

Rejected by dozens of investment banks, which she applied to while studying at the Wharton School of Business, at the University of Pennsylvania, Sud has spoken about how, during one interview, she was told that she did not have the personality to be a banker.

Sud then took up the role of an analyst at Sagent Advisors, a small firm. After spending a few years there, she earned a degree from the Harvard Business School and held a few positions at Amazon. From there, Sud joined Vimeo, starting out as a leader in the global marketing department. During her time there, she made the case that Vimeo’s business must focus on content creators. She was given the opportunity to run the company and credits her speedy rise to her ability to carve out her own path. At 34, Sud is the youngest CEO of an IAC (InterActiveCorp) company.

3) Baiju Bhatt, Co-founder of Robinhood

It took decades for Wall Street icons Jamie Dimon and Goldman’s Lloyd Blankfein to become billionaires. Baiju Bhatt and his partner Vlad Tenev did it in a Silicon Valley minute, according to the Economic Times.

Aside from this recent honour, the co-founder of Robinhood Markets has another reason to celebrate—the valuation of his electronic stock brokerage is around $6 billion, up from $1.3 billion last year,

The son of an immigrant, Bhatt was raised in rural America, before attending Stanford, where he met Vlad. The concept behind Robinhood is to allow users to trade for free, and interestingly, was launched during the economic recession. Its users have saved billions in commissions. Kudos to Bhatt, for running a funded startup when the product didn’t exist, yet needed regulatory approval.

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4) Anu Duggal, Female Founders Fund

The graduate of Vassar College also has an MBA from the London Business School and believes that the next generation of successful venture-backed entrepreneurs will include talented female founders.

Her venture, the Female Founders Fund (F Cubed, for short), provides capital to those running startups. At the end of 2013, she began raising money for F Cubed, to make angel investments solely in women-led companies. By the end of 2014, she had raised $5.85 million for her fund. Nearly four years later, she brought on a partner, and the firm is investing out of a second fund. The pair oversees a portfolio of more than 70 companies including Shine, Zola, Rent the Runway, Peanut and Thrive Global.

(Edited by Gayatri Mishra)

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