Stanford University Notable Alumni

Stanford University boasts a rich legacy of notable alumni who have left a lasting impression on society. From tech CEOs to astronauts, actors to athletes, and leaders in business, government, and the arts, Stanford alumni represent a wide range of backgrounds and achievements.

Today, Stanford University is the alma mater of 220,000 alumni worldwide. The university boasts of producing highly competent professionals in the field of business, academics, arts and entertainment, sports, writing, poetry and others. Stanford is home to 20 living Nobel laureates.

Currently, Stanford University has over 400 alumni in India. Stanford Club of India is the Indian community of Stanford University alumni. The club allows students to meet new people, reconnect with classmates and explore regional activities.

Check: Stanford University Student Profiles

Sundar Pichai

Occupation: Chief Executive Officer, Google and Alphabet
Degree: MS in materials science and engineering

Sundar Pichai is an Indian American software engineer and is one of the most famous Stanford alumni. He pursued MS in materials science and engineering at Stanford University. Pichai started his career in materials engineering and product management at Applied Materials. Soon, he joined McKinsey & Co. as a management consultant. Following that Pichai joined Google in 2004 and was responsible for product management and innovation for a number of Google's client software products, including Google Chrome and Chrome OS, as well as Google Drive. He went on to lead the development of other Google products, including Gmail and Maps. Pichai was named the future CEO of Google in 2015 after being named Product Chief by Larry Page, who was the CEO of Google back then.

Parag Agarwal

Occupation: Former CEO of Twitter
Degree: PhD in Computer Science

Parag Agarwal is among the most famous Stanford University notable Indian alumni of recent times. Parag has completed his PhD in Computer Science from Stanford University and pursued several research internships at Microsoft and Yahoo before joining Twitter in 2021. He served as Twitter CEO before being replaced by Elon Musk in October 2022.

Azim Premji

Occupation: Indian Businessman, Ex-Chairman of Wipro
Degree: BSc in Electrical Engineering

After pursuing his BSc in Electrical Engineering degree from Stanford University, He returned to India to take charge of Wipro, which his father Muhammed Hashim Premji started. Today, he is considered as one of the richest people in India with a net worth of 12.1 billion USD as of February 23, 2024 according to Forbes.

Mukesh Ambani

Occupation: Indian Business Tycoon, 2nd Richest Person in Asia
Degree: MBA

Mukesh Ambani is the chairman and largest stakeholder of Reliance Industries, a Fortune Global 500 corporation and India's most valuable firm by market value. Ambani had completed his MBA degree from Stanford University, following which he took Reliance Industries to greater horizons of the business world. Mukesh Ambani currently owns a total business with a revenue of 113 Billion USD under Reliance Industries as of February 13, 2024 according to Forbes India.

Larry Page

Occupation: Co-founder, Google
Degree: MS in Computer Science

One of the most renowned names in the entrepreneurial world is Larry Page who is a computer scientist as well as the founding CEO of Google. He pursued his MS in Computer Science from Stanford University. The computer science genius founded Google in 1998 and within a short span of 2 years, it came to be recognized as the most advanced and powerful web search engine at that time. Since then, it never looked back and as we all know, the rest is history. In 2023, Larry Page was listed in the Forbes 400 and gained #5th position. He was also placed #8th among the top Billionaires by Forbes, 2024.

Sergey Brin

Occupation: Co-Founder of Google
Degree: MS in Computer Science

Sergey Brin along with Larry Page founded the multi-billionaire tech company Google. With a graduate fellowship from the National Science Foundation, he enrolled for MS in Computer Science at Stanford. Sergey Brin stepped down as the President of Google's Parent company, Alphabet, in 2022. Though, he still serves as the main shareholder and board member of Google.

Elon Musk

Occupation: Business Tycoon, Founder of SpaceX, Co-Founder of Tesla
Degree: PhD program in Physics

Elon Musk is currently the second-richest man in the world according to the real time billionaire’s list by Forbes. He enrolled in the PhD program in Physics at Stanford, but later dropped out for his plans to pursue business education. Elon Musk is the founder of SpaceX, a private space transport service company. He is also arguably one of the founding members of Tesla, the world’s highest selling electric vehicle brand. Musk is also the founder of projects like Hyperloop, OpenAI, Neuraling, Tesla Energy and several others. In April 2022, he made an agreement with Twitter board members to purchase the company for 44 Billion USD. At present, Elon Musk owns almost 74% of the company. Twitter was later taken over by X Corp on March 9, 2023, and its name was replaced to X.  

Tiger Woods

Occupation: World's Greatest Golf Champion
Degree: Major in Economics

Tiger Woods was admitted to Stanford University under a golf scholarship, where he selected economics as his major subject. The 40th Annual William H. Tucker Invitational was his first collegiate victory. At the age of 21, he became the tournament's youngest champion when he won his maiden major, the Masters, in 1997. Today he is an eminent golf professional with numerous accolades and titles.
Check Out: Stanford University Notable Alumni (Spanish)

Reed Hastings

Occupation: Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Netflix
Degree: MS in Computer Science

Reed Hastings went on to pursue MS in Computer Science at Stanford University after being rejected from MIT, which was his initial preference. In 1997, Reed co-founded Netflix, which at that time offered flat rate movie rental-by-mail to clients in the United States integrating two developing technologies: DVDs, which were considerably simpler to deliver than VHS-cassettes, and a website to buy them from, rather than a printed catalog. Later, he decided to integrate all the movies and shows into a single platform and charge people for their subscriptions on a monthly basis. Today, Netflix has over 173.7 million subscribers worldwide.

Peter Thiel

Occupation: American Billionaire Entrepreneur and co-founder of PayPal
Degree: Philosophy at the Undergraduate level

Peter Thiel enrolled at Stanford to study Philosophy. He was the Co-founder of the internationally renowned "The Stanford Review". He served as the first editor-in-chief of the newspaper and then pursued Juris Doctor at Stanford Law School in 1992. After working in the judiciary field for some years he founded Thiel Capital Management in 1996. Later, he Co-founded PayPal and served as the CEO of eBay. Thiel supervises the grant-making bodies Breakout Labs and Thiel Fellowship and finances nonprofit research into artificial intelligence, life extension, and seasteading through the Thiel Foundation. He also has major investments in two of the most valuable unicorns, SpaceX and Stripe.

Reese Witherspoon

Occupation: Famous Hollywood Actress
Degree: English Literature Major

Reese Witherspoon is an American actress who has produced movies and won Academy Awards. Reese Witherspoon holds a Stanford University English Literature degree. Her name is proudly taken in the Forbes list of the World's 100 most influential women in 2019 and 2021. From being a popular household name as Elle Woods to waltzing her way through award ceremonies such as the Golden Globe and Emmy, and even winning the majority of them, her name is proudly taken on the Forbes list of the World's 100 most powerful women in 2019 and 2021.

Rishi Sunak

Occupation: Prime Minister of United Kingdom
Degree: MBA

Rishi Sunak, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, gained an MBA at Stanford and was also a Fulbright scholar there. He has been serving as the Leader of the Conservative Party and UK’s PM since 2022. He previously held two cabinet posts under Boris Johnson, latterly as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2020 to 2022.

Check the overview of Stanford University

Apart from these notable alumni that we have included in the list, Stanford has produced many more talents working across different professional fields. Companies established by Stanford University alumni have generated $2.7 trillion annual revenue. Since 1930, these foundations have created 5.4 million jobs according to Stanford University’s Economic Impact via Innovation and Entrepreneurship, 2012.

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