Azim Premji
Founder Chairman, Wipro
B.S. Electrical Engineering, Stanford University
Photo: Monikia Flueckiger, World Economic Forum, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
About
Azim Hashim Premji is the founder chairman of Wipro, the Bengaluru-based IT services company, and the founder of the Azim Premji Foundation. Born in Bombay on 24 July 1945, he was studying electrical engineering at Stanford University in 1966 when his father died, and at 21 he returned to run the family business, Western India Vegetable Products, a cooking-oil maker in Amalner, Maharashtra. He broadened its products into bakery fats, soaps, toiletries, lighting and hydraulic cylinders, renamed it Wipro, and in the early 1980s moved it into computing, beginning with minicomputers and then software, which became the core of the business. He holds a Bachelor of Science in electrical engineering from Stanford. He led Wipro as chairman for decades before his son Rishad Premji took over the chair; he remains on the board as a non-executive director. In 2001 he founded the Azim Premji Foundation to improve public schooling in India, and he has since transferred a large part of his Wipro shareholding to it. In 2013 he became the first Indian to sign the Giving Pledge. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2005 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2011.
Timeline: 1966, takes over the family company at 21; 1977, company renamed Wipro Products, and Wipro Limited in 1982; 1981, Wipro builds an Indian minicomputer; 1990, software division moves to offshore development; 2001, Azim Premji Foundation set up; 2006, family office PremjiInvest established; 2013, signs the Giving Pledge; 2019, pledges a further 34% of his Wipro stock to the foundation. He is also chancellor of Azim Premji University in Bengaluru.
Source: en.wikipedia.org
