Narayana Murthy

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.

Murthy's corporate and social vision has been appreciated globally and he is the recipient of several awards including Padma Vibushan - India's 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 master's 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, and was the Chairman of the Governing Body of 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, 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’s President's 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 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 also serves as an independent director on the board of the European FMCG giantUnilever. He is an IT advisor to several Asian countries. He is also an Independent Director on the board of HSBC.

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 Légion d'honneur highest civilan 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, 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 7th most admired CEO/Chairman in the world in a global study conducted by Burson-Marsteller with the Economist Intelligence Unit. The list included 14 others with distinguished names such as Bill Gates, Steve Jobs and Warren Buffett. 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.

The Economist ranked him 8th among the top 15 most admired global leaders (2005). He was ranked 28th among the world's most-respected business leaders by the Financial Times (2005). He topped the Economic Times Corporate Dossier list of India's most powerful CEOs for two consecutive years – 2004 and 2005.

TIME magazine’s “Global Tech Influentials” list (August 2004) named Mr. Murthy as one of the ten leaders who are helping shape the future of technology. In November 2006, TIME magazine again voted him as one of the Asian heroes who have brought about revolutionary changes in Asia in the last 60 years. 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,Muhammad Ali Jinnah etc.

He was the first recipient of the Indo-French Forum Medal (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 and Young. He was one of 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 25 most influential global executives, 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 their nine Entrepreneurs of the Year, and he was featured in BusinessWeek's 'The Stars of Asia' for three successive years – 1998, 1999 and 2000. He was recently awarded the Commander of the British Order (CBE) by the British government.

Narayana Murthy's trait of plain-speak and honesty has landed him in many altercations with local political leaders. While the political leaders insist that Narayana Murthy was eyeing India's presidential nomination, Narayana Murthy has repeated many times that he has no interest in politics.

His Quotes:

“Our assets walk out of the door each evening. We have to make sure that they come back the next morning.” 

“Performance leads to recognition. Recognition brings respect. Respect enhances power. Humility and grace in one's moments of power enhances dignity of an organisation,”

“The real power of money is the power to give it away.” 

“In God we trust, everybody else bring data to the table.” 

“Progress is often equal to the difference between mind and mindset.”

“I want Infosys to be a place where people of different genders, nationalities, races and religious beliefs work together in an environment of intense competition but utmost harmony, courtesy and dignity to add more and more value to our customers day after day.”