Amid H-1B tensions, two Indian-origin executives, Srinivas Gopalan and Rahul Goyal, rise to top US leadership roles, defying Make America Great Again (MAGA) hardliners and reshaping America's corporate landscape.
Srinivas Gopalan (Left) has become the CEO of T-Mobile, while Rahul Goyal (Righr) has been elevated to CEO of Molson Coors.
T-Mobile, the US telecom giant, will see Srinivas “Srini” Gopalan, 55, step into the CEO role on November 1. Gopalan.
An alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad, currently serves as T-Mobile’s Chief Operating Officer and will succeed Mike Sievert, who has led the company since 2020 and moves to the newly created position of vice chairman.
This at a time when the Donald Trump-led US administration is tightening H-1B visa rules.
Many say two major American companies bucked the trend by promoting India-born leaders to top positions.
Chicago-based beverage giant Molson Coors named Rahul Goyal, 49, as its new president and CEO, effective October 1. Goyal, who succeeds Gavin Hattersley (remaining in an advisory role through the end of the year), has been with the company for 24 years.
A native of India, he studied engineering in Mysore before moving to the US for business studies in Denver, and has worked across Coors and Molson brands in the US, UK, and India.
“I’m deeply honoured to take on the role of T-Mobile’s next chief executive officer. I’ve long been in awe of what this company has achieved — fearlessly reinventing wireless to serve customers in ways no one thought possible,” Gopalan said in a LinkedIn post.
“After an extensive CEO succession process, it was clear Rahul brought the right experience and vision to drive our next phase of growth,” said David Coors, chairman of Molson Coors’ board.
Goyal said he was ready to meet challenges head-on while carrying forward the company’s legacy.
These appointments come amid rising political scrutiny over foreign-born employees, whom MAGA hardliners sometimes portray as “globalists” taking American jobs.
Indian-origin talent leaders continue to head some of America’s most influential companies, following in the footsteps of Satya Nadella at Microsoft, Sundar Pichai at Alphabet, and others in Fortune 500 firms.
Gopalan’s career spans continents and industries. Starting as a management trainee at Hindustan Unilever, he went on to hold senior roles at Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Capital One, and Deutsche Telekom, where he doubled growth, scaled fiber networks to millions of homes, and captured record mobile market share in Germany.
At T-Mobile, he has overseen the Technology, Consumer, and Business divisions, spearheading initiatives in 5G, AI, and digital transformation.
Sievert called Gopalan “highly skilled, passionate, and incredibly knowledgeable,” adding that he had full confidence in Gopalan’s ability to “take our employee and customer experience to the next level.”
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