Narayana Murthy

Narayana Murthy is an Indian industrialist and software engineer. He and six other engineers co-founded Infosys in 1981. Murthy served as CEO from 1981 to 2002. From 2002 to 2011, he served as the Chairman. In 2011, he stepped down from the board and became Chairman Emeritus.Murthy's first job position was at IIM Ahmedabad, where he worked as the chief systems programmer. After IIM Ahmedabad, he started a company named Softronics in 1976. When that company failed, he joined Patni Computer Systems in Pune.

After settling down in Pune, Murthy founded Infosys in 1981 with an initial capital injection of Rs 10,000, which was invested by his wife Sudha Murthy. Murthy served as the CEO of Infosys for 21 years and was succeeded by co-founder Nandan Nilekani in 2002. At Infosys he articulated, designed and implemented the Global Delivery Model which has become the foundation for the huge success in IT services outsourcing from India. In August 2011, he retired completely from the company and taking the title Chairman Emeritus.

Murthy serves as an independent director on the corporate boards of HSBC and has served as a director on the boards of DBS Bank, Unilever, ICICI and NDTV.

He also serves as a member of the advisory boards and councils of several educational and philanthropic institutions. He is also the Chairman of the Governing board of Public Health Foundation of India. He also serves on the Asia Pacific Advisory Board of British Telecommunications. In 2005, he co-chaired the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Murthy is the first person to introduce philanthropy in business. He introduced Employees Share Option (ESOP) for the benefit of his the employees. This scheme was introduced by him in the early stages of Infosys. Under this scheme he offered company’s shares to the employees. This boosted the motivation of employees and they were more determined to work hard for the organization. Many IT companies having seen this scheme have started such similar schemes for their employees.

In November 2006, TIME magazine 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, Mother Teresa, and Muhammad Ali Jinnah.