Narayana Murthy, Indian billionaire successful businessman. He is one of Infosys’ co-founders.
Prior to retiring and assuming the title of chairperson emeritus, he served as chief mentor, president, chief executive officer, and chairperson.
He was born on August 20, 1946, and raised in Shidlaghatta, Karnataka. He graduated from the National Institute of Engineering, University of Mysore, with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. He then completed his master’s degree at Kanpur’s Indian Institute of Technology.
Before founding Infosys, Narayana Murthy had positions as chief systems programmer at Patni Computer Systems in Pune and at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, or IIM Ahmedabad.
Infosys Founded
He founded Infosys in 1981, serving as CEO from 1981 to 2002 and subsequently as chairperson from 2002 to 2011. He was named executive chairman for a five-year term in June 2013 after being chairman emeritus in 2011.
Murthy is referred to as the “father of the IT sector” by Time Magazine. He was even named one of the top 12 entrepreneurs of all time by Fortune Magazine. He has been honored with the Padma Sri and Padma Vibhushan awards. Personal Life of Narayana Murthy: Sudha Murthy, his spouse, works as a social worker and novelist. She works with the Infosys Foundation to carry out charitable endeavors.
Rohan Murthy is their son, while Akshata Murthy is their daughter. On June 1, 2013, Rohan started working at Infosys, and he departed on June 14, 2014.
Akshata is wed to Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor of the Exchequer for the United Kingdom and a Conservative MP for Richmond, Yorkshire.
Life and career prior to Infosys
Murthy worked as a research associate under a faculty member at IIM Ahmedabad in the beginning of his career before rising to the position of chief systems programmer. He built and implemented a BASIC interpreter for Electronics Corporation of India Limited while working on the country’s first time-sharing computer system. He founded Softonics, a business that was unsuccessful. Approximately six months later, he started working at Patni Computer Systems-Pune.
The pivotal role that Sudha Murthy played in founding Infosys In 1981, Murthy and six other software professionals raised 10,000 rupees to create Infosys. That money came from his wife, Sudha Murthy. From 1981 to 2002, he presided over Infosys as CEO for 20 years. He presided over the board as its chair from 2002 to 2006. After that, he was appointed Chief Mentor and Chairman of the Board. August 2011 saw his retirement from the corporation, and he was given the title Chairman Emeritus. Murthy is an independent director on the HSBC board. He even had director positions at Unilever, ICICI, DBS Bank, and NDTV.
In numerous institutes, he also has advisory memberships. INSEAD, Cornell University, UN Foundation, Asian Institute of Management, and so on are a few of them. He is the Public Health Foundation of India’s chairman as well. He served as co-chair of the Davos World Economic Forum in 2005.
Back to Infosys
On June 1, 2013, Narayana Murthy rejoined Infosys as an Executive Chairman and Additional Director. Murthy is on the strategic board as well. It provides strategic, policy, and governance advice to Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, a major law firm. He is on the International Advisory Board at IESE.
In 2016, Narayana Murthy gave a speech on “How to be a better Manager” at Harvard Business Review Ascend. In it, he offered advice from his personal experience. In 2017, he voiced concerns about suspected violations of corporate governance at Infosys.
