N. R. Narayana Murthy
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| Born: | August 20, 1946 Karnataka, India |
|---|---|
| Occupation: | Chairman & Chief Mentor of Infosys |
| Salary: | $50,000 USD (Infosys) |
| Net worth: |  $1.1 billion USD (2005)[1] |
N.R. Narayana Murthy is an Indian industrialist, software engineer and the founder of Infosys Technologies,a global consulting and IT services company based in India which employs more than 70,000 people worldwide.
Born into a Kannadiga Brahmin family in Mysore, India on August 20, 1946, he graduated with a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Mysore in 1967 and received his master's degree from IIT Kanpur in 1969.
He began his career with Patni Computer Systems in Pune. He met his wife Sudha Murty, who was a research associate with Tata in Pune. In 1981, he founded Infosys with six other software professionals. He served as president of the National Association of Software and Service Companies, India from 1992 to 1994. Mr. Murthy is the brother-in-law of serial entrepreneur Gururaj "Desh" Deshpande and the uncle of former NASSCOM Chairman and MphasiS chief Jerry Rao.
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Murthy served as CEO of Infosys for twenty years, and was succeeded by co-founder Nandan Nilekani in March 2002. He is the chairman of the governing body of both the International Institute of Information Technology - Bangalore, and the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. In addition, he is a member of the Board of Directors of INSEAD, Board of Overseers of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, Cornell University Board of Trustees, Singapore Management University Board of Trustees and the Board of Advisors for the William F. Achtmeyer Center for Global Leadership at the Tuck School of Business.
Murthy serves as an independent director on the board of the DBS Bank of Singapore. This is the largest government-owned bank in Singapore. He also serves as a director on the Central Board of the Reserve Bank of India, as the co-chairman of the Indo-British Partnership, as a member of the Prime Minister's council on trade and industry, as a member of the Asia Advisory Board of British Telecommunications plc. and as a member of the Board of NDTV, India. He is an IT advisor to several Asian countries.
He has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors. In 2000, he was awarded the Padma Shri, a civilian award by the Government of India. He was the first recipient of the Indo-French Forum Medal (in the year 2003), awarded by the Indo-French Forum, in recognition of his role in promoting Indo-French ties. He was voted the World Entrepreneur of the Year - 2003 by Ernst & Young. He was one of the two people named as Asia's Businessmen of the Year for 2003 by Fortune magazine. In 2001, he was named by TIME / CNN as one of the twenty-five, most influential global executives, a group selected for their lasting influence in creating new industries and reshaping markets. He was awarded the Max Schmidheiny Liberty 2001 prize ( Switzerland), in recognition of his promotion of individual responsibility and liberty. In 1999, BusinessWeek named him one of the nine entrepreneurs of the year and he was also featured in the BusinessWeek's 'The Stars of Asia' (for three successive years - 1998, 1999 and 2000). In 1998, the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, one of the premier institutes of higher learning in India, conferred on him the Distinguished Alumnus Award, and in 1996-97, he was awarded the JRD Tata Corporate Leadership Award.
In December 2005, Narayana Murthy was voted as the 8th most admired CEO/Chairman in the world in a global study conducted by Burson-Marsteller with the Economist Intelligence Unit [1]. The list included 14 others with distinguished names such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Warren Buffet.
In May 2006, Narayana Murthy has, for the fifth year running, emerged the most admired business leader of India in a study conducted by Brand-comm, a leading Brand Consulting, Advertising and PR firm.
He retired on 20th August, 2006. However he shall continue as the Non-Executive Chairman[2].
In November 2006, Time magazine featured him in its list of "Asian Heroes". The list featured people who have had a significant impact on Asian history over the past 60 years and it included others such as Mahatma Gandhi, Dalai Lama, Mother Teresa, etc.
