Biography

Nagavara Ramarao Narayana Murthy better known as N. R. Narayana Murthy, is an Indian industrialist, software engineer and one of the seven founders of Infosys Technologies, a global consulting and IT services company based in India. He is currently the non executive Chairman and Chief Mentor of Infosys. He was the CEO of the company for 21 years, from 1981 to 2002. After stepping down as CEO in 2002, he has broadened his scope of activities to social services as well as promoting India globally.Murthys corporate and social vision has been appreciated globally and he is the recipient of several awards including Padma Vibushan Indias second highest civilian award. Born into a Kannada Madhva Brahmin family in Mysore, India on August 20, 1946, Murthy graduated with a degree in electrical engineering from the National Institute of Engineering, University of Mysore in 1967 after attending government school, and received his masters degree from IIT Kanpur in 1969. His first position was at IIM Ahmedabad as chief systems programmer where he worked on a time sharing system and designed and implemented a BASIC interpreter for ECIL Electronics Corporation of India Limited.

After IIM Ahmedabad, he then joined Patni Computer Systems in Pune. Before moving to Mumbai, Murthy met his wife Sudha Murthy in Pune who at the time was an engineer working at Tata Engineering and Locomotive Co. Ltd. Telco, now known as Tata Motors 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. Murthy served as the founder CEO of Infosys for 21 years, and was succeeded by co founder Nandan Nilekani in March 2002. He is the chairman of the governing body of the International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore. In addition, he is a member of the Board of Directors of INSEAD, Board of Overseers of the University of Pennsylvanias Wharton School, Cornell University Board of Trustees, Business Advisory Council of Great Lakes Institute of Management Chennai, 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. Mr. Murthy also sits on the Board of Governors of the Asian Institute of Management (AIM), a graduate school of business located in the Philippines and is also the Chairman of the Board of Members of School of Management, Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) located in Bangkok, Thailand. He is the chairman of the Asia Business Council, an organization headquartered in Hong Kong. He is also a member of the Advisory Boards and Councils of various well known universities such as the Stanford Graduate School of Business, the Corporate Governance initiative at the Harvard Business School, Yale University and the University of Tokyo? Presidents Council. 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 Ministers council on trade and industry, as a member of the Asia Advisory Board of British He retired from his executive position at Infosys on 20th August, 2006. However, he continues as the Non Executive Chairman of the board. Murthy has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors. In 2008, he was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, a second highest civilian award by India and L?ion dhonneur highest civilian award by France. 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, and 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 Asias Businessmen of the Year for 2003 by Fortune magazine. He was recently awarded the Commander of the British Order (CBE) by the British government.