If a company replaces CEO with… Indian-origin tech leader says he back-tested billionaire Michael Milken’s idea

Billionaire Michael Milken earlier said he would buy shares in a company if it replaced its American chief executive with an Indian-born CEO.

Indian-origin tech leader Debarghya Das sparked a huge debate on social media when she shared billionaire Michael Milken’s remarks about Indian-origin CEOs replacing American-born CEOs in US companies and showed the results. Milken had earlier said he would buy the stock if a U.S. company replaced its U.S.-born CEO with an Indian-born CEO. Das said he back-tested the idea. “Over the last 15 years, this would have grown your money 50x: 7.5x more than the S&P 500, with an IRR of over 2x: 30% vs. 14%!” Das concluded.As the conclusion sparked a debate about Indian-American leadership at tech companies, Das said it was just a correlation he observed and did not prove that stocks rose because of Indian-American leadership.Responses to the article were mixed, with many claiming it was just a coincidence and that people should also look into companies founded by Indian-origin tech leaders.“Indian-born/immigrant executives who end up running big American companies often have to overcome insane odds at every stage: school, jobs, immigration, promotions, all of it. The insight is simple: If America keeps letting the best talent in from around the world, American companies will win,” one wrote.Another wrote: “The first thing they start doing is cutting American jobs and outsourcing or automating them. That’s good for companies, but it’s been going on for 50 years. How long will this go on before companies realize that when Americans don’t have money, they don’t buy anything.”“Stock prices are rising not because of innovation, but because of mass layoffs, outsourcing and depressed wages. It’s been 20 years now. All these companies are producing waste and dying out of their own incompetence,” a third user wrote.Another wrote: “Companies are now being started by Indians. Not monopolies built by previous CEOs. Monkeys can run the mentioned companies once they reach the size they were when these CEOs took over.”