Narayana Murthy

N.R. Narayana Murthy, the founder of Infosys Technologies is one of the most famous personalities in India's I-T sector. Born on August 20, 1946, he obtained a degree in electrical engineering from the National Institute of Engineering under University of Mysore in 1967 and went on to do his Masters from IIT Kanpur in 1969.

He joined Patni Computer Systems in Pune. While at Pune, he met his wife Sudha Murty In 1981, he founded Infosys alongwith with six otherpeople. He served as president of the National Association of Software and Service Companies, India from 1992 to 1994.

Murthy was the CEO of Infosys for twenty years, and was succeeded by Nandan Nilekani in March 2002. He functioned as the Executive Chairman of the Board and Chief Mentor from 2002 to 2006.

He is on the governing bodies of many leading institutes like the International Institute of Information Technology-Bangalore, and the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He is a member of the Advisory Boards and Councils of various well-known institutions like 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.

Besides, he has served on the Central Board of the Reserve Bank of India, as a member of the Prime Minister's council on trade and industry, as a member of the Asia Advisory Board of British Telecommunications and was the Chairman of the committee on Corporate Governance appointed by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in 2003.

Narayanamurthy has won several accolades in India and abroad. In 2000, he was awarded the Padma Shri and was voted the World Entrepreneur of the Year - 2003 by Ernst & Young. In 2001, his name was included by TIME / CNN in the list of twenty-five, most influential global executives. He was ranked by the Economist as the 8th among the top 15 most admired global leaders in 2005.

Though he retired on 20th August, 2006, he continues to be the Non-Executive Chairman