N. R. Narayana Murthy
Non-Executive Chairman and Chief Mentor
Infosys Technologies Ltd.
Narayana Murthy is the chairman of the board and chief mentor of Infosys Technologies
Ltd., a global information technology consulting and software services provider,
headquartered in Bangalore, India. He founded Infosys in 1981 along with six other
software professionals and served as the CEO of Infosys for 21 years before handing over
the reins of the company to co-founder Nandan M. Nilekani in March 2002. Under
Mr. Murthy’s leadership, Infosys was listed on NASDAQ in 1999. He served as the executive
chairman of the board and chief mentor from 2002 to 2006.
Mr. Murthy articulated, designed, and implemented the global delivery model that
has become the foundation for the huge success in IT services outsourcing from India.
He has led key corporate governance initiatives in India. He is an IT advisor to several
Asian countries. Mr. Murthy serves as an independent director on the boards of several
global companies including Unilever, London, and DBS Bank, Singapore. He is also
a member of the advisory boards and councils of several educational institutions,
including Wharton, Cornell, INSEAD, Stanford, Tokyo University, SMU–Singapore,
IIITB–Bangalore, and ESSEC, Paris.
Mr. Murthy is the recipient of numerous awards and honors. The Economist ranked him
8th in the list of the 15 most-admired global leaders in 2005. He was ranked 28th among
the world’s most-respected business leaders by the Financial Times in 2005. In 2004, Time
magazine identified him as one of the 10 global leaders who are helping shape the future
of technology. In 2006, Time magazine voted him as one of the Asian heroes who have
brought about revolutionary changes in Asia in the last 60 years. He was featured in
BusinessWeek’s “The Stars of Asia” for three consecutive years: 1998, 1999, and 2000.
He was voted the “World Entrepreneur of the Year” by Ernst & Young in 2003. He was
voted India’s most powerful CEO for three consecutive years—2004, 2005, and 2006—by
the Economic Times. He was chosen as the “Business Process Innovator” by the Economist
in 2007. He received the Ernst Weber Engineering Leadership medal from the Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers in 2007 for his pioneering role in the globalization
of IT services. He was awarded “Padma Vibhushan,” the second-highest civilian award
by the government of India, in 2008. The government of France conferred on him the
Officer of the Legion of Honor in 2008.
He obtained his BE Electrical from the University of Mysore in 1967 and MTech Electrical
from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, in 1969. He has been conferred honorary
doctorates by several well-known universities in India and abroad.