Nikesh Arora, the 39-year-old head of Google’s European operations, got the job after wandering around the British Museum, being interviewed on the move by Google’s founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin. The high-flying Indian-born, US-educated executive had just left T-Mobile after a short stint running its British business and was approached to develop the business in Europe.

Despite the museum tour, Google’s hiring process was not as cavalier as it appeared; Mr Arora was interviewed, he once estimated, a further 16 times to ensure that he was compatible; since then, he has helped Google to mirror its American growth, in Britain in particular.

Born in Delhi, to a father who was a financial planner for the Indian Air Force and a mother with a master’s degree in mathematics, Mr Arora left his homeland aged 21 to study for an MBA in the United States. Afterwards he became a telecoms analyst for Putnam Investments, making a small fortune in his twenties.

The work at Putnam brought him into contact with Deutsche Telekom’s mobiles unit. As an analyst, Mr Arora was initially dismissive of the prospects for mobile internet services, but, amid excitement about third-generation services, at T-Mobile he became responsible for one. In so doing, he also became one of the most senior foreign executives at the German-dominated company, running a business that was, pointedly, based in London rather than in its headquarters in Bonn. Four years later, he left as Deutsche Telekom battled with debt problems and the mobile internet dream failed to develop as fast as had been hoped.

That led Mr Arora to the British Museum and the search engine giant, where the rapid growth anticipated this time turned out to be real. In his many interviews, Mr Arora emphasised the Californian approach to management, quipping at a CBI conference that, while he had brought a tie for that occasion, it was the first time that he had worn one in six months.

The dress-down style does not reflect a lack of ambition. Few expect Mr Arora to spend many more years at Google, although the company’s rising share price doubtless makes any move personally expensive. Already, the global success of the search engine giant has meant that Mr Arora has been linked with a succession of top jobs in Britain — he was suggested as an outside candidate to take over at ITV when the job of chief executive at the commercial broadcaster was vacant last year.

In the meantime, such is the status of Google, that the job — one of the most senior at Google outside its Silicon Valley headquarters — has given him a profile in Britain that chief executives of home-grown British companies lack. A further elevation for Nikesh Arora is probably, therefore, only a matter of time.

Explore Movers & Shakers

• Executive Movers