THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
Sajan Pillai, former CEO of IT major UST Global whose exceptional vision and expertise played a stellar role in the company’s phenomenal strides, has been selected for the coveted Employees’ Choice Award instituted by the US-based Glassdoor, one of the world’s largest job and recruiting sites.
Kerala-born Pillai ranks 56th among the 100 CEOs selected for the award, announced by Glassdoor at Mill Valley, California. He shares the honour with Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Google’s Sundar Pitchai, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Apple’s Tim Cook and LinkedIn’s Jeff Weiner. The awardees for 2019 include CEOs of top companies cutting across diverse sectors spread across North America and parts of Europe.
Pillai, who stepped down as CEO of UST Global, has been instrumental in fostering the core value of innovation in the company and remains a member on its Board of Directors. He remains poised to lead the company into the future of IT.
Headquartered in Aliso Viejo, California, UST Global is a fast-growing organisation with over 10,000 employees, and provides advanced computing and digital services to more than 1,000 enterprises around the world.Founded in 1999, it is the first unicorn company from Kerala.
A computer science graduate from the College of Engineering, Trivandrum, Pillai has an extensive background in the offshore IT industry. He was co-founder of Softek Systems in India and has served in one of India’s top three consulting services companies. He also architected and managed several large software systems for MCI Telecommunications in the US and subsequently held senior management positions in Tanning Systems, an American software solutions company.
He also serves on the boards of multiple nonprofit organisations such as the California Science Center, the Global Virus Network, Centro Fox in Mexico and PEACE One Day Corporate Coalition.
Pillai, who holds patents in Internet Computing and Data Systems, was recently chosen as one of the elite 100 CEO Leaders in STEM by STEMConnector. He has also been featured in LEADERS magazine for his focus on emerging markets, entrepreneurship and innovation, technology and diversity.
Driven by the motto that technology can change the world,he has introduced an initiative, Step IT Up America, to train and hire 5,000 minority women inthe field of IT, a programme that has been endorsed by both political and industry leaders.
“It’s an honor to recognize incredible leaders who, from their employees’ perspectives, exemplify exceptional vision, trust and communication. Glassdoor’s Top CEOs award continues to be more competitive every year, and I congratulate each leader on their achievement,” said Christian Sutherland-Wong, President and Chief Operating Officer of Glassdoor.
“Today’s jobseekers are looking for leaders who share their values and will empower them to bring their full selves to work. More and more, we’re seeing Top CEOs make decisions to shape the culture of their organisations to help recruit and retain quality talent, which has a direct correlation to fueling business success,” he noted.
Unlike other honours, Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Awards are based on the inputs of employees who voluntarily provide anonymous feedback by completing a company review about their CEO’s leadership, along with insights into their job, work environment and employer over the past year.
Ten top CEOs from the US figuring in the list include VMware’s Pat Gelsinger;H E B’s Charles C. Butt; In-N-Out Burger’s Lynsi Snyder; T-Mobile’s John Legere; Adobe’s Shantanu Narayen; and McKinsey & Company’s Kevin Sneader.
This year, the Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Awards for the Top CEOs featured six distinct company categories across the US, Canada, the UK, France and Germany. The winners were determined by the company’s proprietary algorithm, taking into account the quantity, quality and consistency of Glassdoor-approved company reviews shared by US-based employees between May 2, 2018 and May 1, 2019.
Launched in 2008, Glassdoor now has reviews and insights for around 900,000 companies located in more than 190 countries. It helps employers hire informed candidates through recruiting solutions like job advertising and employer branding products.
