The abrupt departure of Pieter Elbers from IndiGo underscores a familiar pattern in corporate India: Foreign chief executives (CEOs) struggling to build lasting tenures.
“Very few expat CEOs achieve good results in India,” says Ronesh Puri, managing director of executive search firm Executive Access India. “The success rate is probably only around 10 to 20 percent.”
Another prominent recent example came at Wipro, where French executive Thierry Delaporte stepped down in April 2024, more than a year before the end of his five-year contract, as growth lagged peers such as Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys.
Elbers’s exit comes despite what many industry observers consider a broadly successful operational run.
The former head of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines was appointed to lead IndiGo in 2022 with the goal of accelerating the airline’s international growth and strengthening its global standing. By several measures, his tenure delivered results. IndiGo expanded its international network and consolidated its dominance in the domestic aviation market, steadily increasing its market share.
But in December, the airline grappled with a pilot-related crisis that disrupted operations and left thousands of flyers stranded across India.
That led to the scrutiny of Elbers and his inability to foresee the airline’s biggest crisis in its 20-year history, which is widely expected to have led to his departure.
“Some 15 years ago, Indian companies were coming of age and going global and at that time we saw the concept of expat CEOs gaining ground,” says Anandorup Ghose, partner, CHRO programme leader, human capital consulting, Deloitte India. “But post-Covid, there’s been a steep decline in the hiring of expat CEOs.”
At the time, companies wanted global managerial practices, international networks and leaders experienced in scaling businesses across borders. Foreign executives were often brought in during transition periods or phases of rapid expansion when firms were building long-term capabilities.
But the experiment rarely produced lasting appointments.
“Expat CEOs typically don’t have long tenures,” Ghose says. “You still see examples of Indians based abroad coming back and serving for a long period of time, but non-Indians coming to India and serving for a long period is rare.”
Several factors have quietly reduced the appetite for expat leadership in recent years.
One is the rise of globally experienced Indian executives returning home. “Indians returning from abroad are filling the skill gap for which companies were hiring an expat,” according to Ghose.
Another is cost. Global mobility has become more expensive after the pandemic, making expat CEO packages harder to justify when comparable local talent exists.
Puri of Executive Access says it’s not about competence but the subtleties of leadership. “India is a complex and diverse country. It requires strong people skills and an ability to build relationships,” Puri says, adding that understanding regional nuances also takes time. “Leadership here works with both the heart and the mind. Many expat CEOs rely heavily on the ‘mind’ side but miss the emotional connection.”
The answer lies in the nature of the industry. “Aviation as an industry is international,” Deloitte’s Ghose says. “Rules are the same around the world and so the talent pool is the same around the world.”
Aircraft are leased from global financiers. Safety and maintenance standards are governed by international regulators. Airlines operate across multiple jurisdictions.India’s aviation sector has therefore seen several expat leaders appointed—and exit—over the years.
Wolfgang Prock-Schauer resigned from Jet Airways in 2009 after a labour dispute involving hundreds of pilots. Cornelis Vrieswijk stepped down from Go First in 2019 after less than a year in the role.
When the Tata group regained control of Air India in 2022, it appointed New Zealand-born aviation veteran Campbell Wilson to oversee one of the most complex airline turnarounds in modern aviation.
Despite the challenges, expat leadership in India has also produced notable successes. Guenter Butschek helped stabilise Tata Motors during a difficult phase. At Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Erez Israeli has overseen steady expansion.
Some companies today openly prefer Indian CEOs. Others remain agnostic about nationality, focusing instead on industry expertise, says Puri.
First Published: Apr 01, 2026, 18:07
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