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Azim Premji Foundation is led by a
Board composed of six members:
Azim
Premji (Chairman,
Wipro)
Sharad Chandra Behar (Former Chief
Secretary, Govt. of Madhya Pradesh)
Rishad Premji (Head
- Special Projects, Wipro Technologies)
Yasmeen Premji (Director, Azim
Premji Foundation)
P M Sinha (Former Chairman,
Pepsi India)
N Vaghul (Chairman, ICICI)
Azim
Premji, Chairman, Wipro
Azim
Premji has led Wipro since late 1960’s. Then a $2 million
hydrogenated cooking fat company, Wipro Limited is today a $5.7
billion revenue IT, BPO and R&D Services organization with
presence in over 50 countries.
Premji
started at Wipro with one basic idea – to build an organization
which was deeply committed to Values, with the firm belief that
success in business would be its inevitable, eventual outcome.
Unflinching commitment to Values continues to remain at the core of
Wipro.
Premji
strongly believes that ordinary people are capable of extraordinary
things and that the key to this is creating highly charged teams. He
takes a personal interest in developing teams and leaders and invests
significant time as a faculty in Wipro’s leadership development
programs.
In
Premji’s view, the Wipro brand promise of “Applying Thought” is
the driving force for delivering value for customers – which is the
heart of business success. This has driven Wipro’s pioneering
efforts in Quality, culminating in the “Wipro Way”, which
integrates the methods and practices of Six Sigma, PCMM, CMMi and
Lean. It also drives Wipro’s focus on applying Innovation for
direct customer benefits – improving their time-to-market,
enhancing their predictability & reliability, and cutting their
costs.
Premji
is firmly committed to the belief that business organizations have
deep social responsibility - and that this responsibility must be
discharged: by conducting ethical and fair business, by active
involvement with fundamental societal issues and by building an
ecologically sustainable business. Wipro is deeply involved in trying
to improve Quality of school education through its “Wipro Applying
Thought in Schools” initiative, in local community causes through
“Wipro Cares” and is determinedly committed to a journey which
weaves ecological sensitivity in every aspect of its business and
organization.
Over
the years, Azim Premji has received many honors and accolades, which
he believes are recognitions for each person who has contributed to
Wipro. Business Week listed him amongst the top 30 entrepreneurs in
world history (July 2007), they also featured him on their cover with
the sobriquet “India’s Tech King” (October 2003). Financial
Times included him in the global list of 25 people who are
“dramatically reshaping the way people live, work or think” and
have done most to bring about significant and lasting social,
political or cultural changes (October 2005, November 2004). Time
listed him (April 2004) as one amongst 100 most influential people in
the world. He was named by Fortune (August 2003) as one of the 25
most powerful business leaders outside the US, Forbes (March 2003)
listed him as one of ten people globally, who have the most “power
to effect change”. He was adjudged as the Business Leader of the
Year 2004 by the Economic Times.
In
2005 he became the first Indian recipient of the Faraday Medal.
Wesleyan University, USA, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee,
Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Aligarh University and
Visveswaraya Technological University have all conferred honorary
doctorates on him, while XLRI, Jamshedpur has conferred the Sir
Jehangir Ghandy Medal for Industrial and Social Peace. In 2000, the
Institute of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers conferred
its highest honor - the Honorary Fellowship. The US-India Business
Council has honored him with the “Global Vision” award.
He
is a non-executive Director on the Board of the Reserve Bank of
India. He is also a member of the Prime Minister’s Committee for
Trade and Industry in India. In January 2005, the Government of India
conferred upon him the Padma Bhushana, one of the highest civilian
awards in the country.
In
the year 2001, Premji established the Azim Premji Foundation, a
not-for-profit organization with a Vision of significantly
contributing to quality primary education for every child, in order
to build a just, equitable, humane & sustainable society. The
financial resources to this foundation have been personally
contributed by Premji. The current programs of the Azim Premji
Foundation reach out to over 2.5 million children in more than 20,000
schools across India. In October 2006, the Foundation was recognized
as the Corporate Citizen of the year by the Economic Times.
Azim
Premji is a graduate in Electrical Engineering from Stanford
University, USA.
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Sharad Chandra Behar
With a
Master’s Degree in Psychology, Mr. S C Behar joined the Indian
Administrative Service in 1961. As an IAS Officer, he held a number of
important positions in the Government of Madhya Pradesh and Government
of India where a major part of the career was devoted in the area of
education. He actively participated in a number of Government
Committees and Task Forces. He has served in the jury for Indira Gandhi
Social Service Award, Birsa Munda Award for services in tribal areas
etc.
He has
published around 100 papers on Education, Public Administration and
issues of social concern. He was Chief Editor of an educational journal
“Palash” for twenty years and a journal of public administration in
Hindi for five years. He was the Founder Director of Eklavya, a
voluntary organization for educational research and innovative actions
and Founder Chairman of Nachiketu, an institution for education and
social service.
Since
retiring from service in 1997 as Chief Secretary to the Government of
Madhya Pradesh, he worked as Vice Chancellor of Makhanlal Chaturvedi
National University of Journalism. He is also Chair-person of three
voluntary organizations namely, Madhya Pradesh Bharat Gyan Vigyan
Sabha, Digadarshika and Lokshakti Raigarh.
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Rishad Premji
Rishad Premji graduated with BA in Economics from Wesleyan University
in the US. This included a year abroad at the London School of
Economics where he was part of the General Course Program. While at Wesleyan, Rishad was Secretary and Treasurer of the
International Students Association and also served as a Teaching
Assistant for the Introductory Macroeconomics course. After
graduating, Rishad joined GE Capital’s Financial Management Program
(FMP) where he worked with several businesses ranging from Corporate
Treasury to Card Services to Resinsurance. After graduating
from FMP, Rishad joined FGIC, a GE company based out of New York in the
bond insurance space. While at GE, Rishad received
honours for exceptional performance including the 2003 Stellar Award
from FGIC.
Rishad graduated with an MBA from Harvard Business School (HBS) in
2005. While at HBS, Rishad was actively involved with
multiple clubs and was Co-Chair of South Asian Business Conference, one
of the largest conferences at HBS. Post Harvard, Rishad
joined Bain & Company in 2005, one of the leading, global
consulting organizations based out of their London office, where he was
involved in multiple projects from consumer products to auto to private
equity.
In 2007, Rishad joined Wipro Technologies, a global IT company, as
Business Head for Special Projects driving new initiatives for the
Banking vertical. Rishad is based in Bangalore.
Rishad is passionate about the opportunity education can bring and is
particularly keen that initiatives and programs of the Azim Premji
Foundation are designed and implemented in a manner in which they can
contribute to sustainable, systemic improvements.
Yasmeen Premji
Yasmeen Premji secured a First Class First in B.A
Hons. (Psychology) from St. Xaviers College, University of Bombay and a
Masters degree in Psychology from Smith College, Mass. USA. She then
worked as Personnel Supervisor with Esso Inc. Mumbai between 1970 and
1972.
Yasmeen Premji subsequently obtained a Diploma with
Distinction in Interior Design from Mumbai in 1976. She was the
Assistant Editor of "Inside Outside" the Design Magazine between 1983
and 1997.
Yasmeen has had a long and abiding interest in
social development and has been associated with social development
activities for over 12 years. She was the Director, Aga Khan Health
Services (India) between 1993 and 1996 and a Member, Managing Committee
and Executive Council, PAK Hospital, Mumbai, 1994 - 97. She is a
Member, National Committee, Aga Khan Foundation from July 2001 and her
tenure runs through till 2004.
Yasmeen is also particularly concerned about the
extremely disadvantaged children of India and served as a Member of the
Managing Committee, Currimbhoy Orphanage, Mumbai, 1990 - 97.
In Bangalore, she is associated with Vishwas
(Society for Mental Health) as a Member from October 2000.
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P.M
Sinha
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Mr. PM Sinha is an alumni
of Sloan School of Management, MIT. He started as a Management Trainee
in Esso Standard Eastern in India in Sales and Marketing and in 1969
joined Unilever India. He joined the Executive Board of Hindustan Lever
Ltd., in 1981, and was the Chairman of Stephen Chemicals besides being
on the Boards of Brooke Bond India Ltd., Lipton India Ltd., Lintas
India, and Nepal Lever.
In 1992 Sinha took over as
President of Pepsi Cola International for South Asia. He opted for an
early retirement effective August 1st, 2002, from Pepsi, after ten
years as CEO for Pepsi Beverage International for South Asia. He is a
non-executive Director on Boards of Wipro Ltd., ICICI Bank Ltd.,
Lafarge India Ltd. and Bharti Tele-ventures Ltd. He is also a part of
the Board of Governors of Management Development Institute.
Mr. Sinha is the Vice
Chairman of Socio Economic Development Foundation of Federation of
Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and as the Co-Chairman of
FICCI-CARE Gujarat Rehabilitation Foundation, was involved in total
reconstruction and rehabilitation of 23 earthquake affected villages in
Bhuj district of Gujarat.
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N Vaghul
Mr. N.
Vaghul is the Chairman of ICICI Bank which is the second largest bank
in the country. He has nearly 45 years of experience in the banking
industry and has held assignments in several other banks before
assuming the office of the Chairman of ICICI Bank in 1985. Besides
being a chairman of the Bank he is a member on the boards of several
leading corporations in India such as Wipro, Mahindra and Mahindra
Limited, Nicholas Piramal Limited and Apollo Hospitals &
Enterprise Limited. He is on the board of Ispat International, a
leading multinational steel company with head quarters at Rotterdam.
Vaghul
is actively involved in promoting several public causes notably the
Universalisation of Elementary Education in the country. He is the
Chairman of Pratham India Education Initiative which is primarily
engaged in serving the under privileged children living in slum areas
and who do not have either access to education or quality education.
Vaghul is also on the board of Akshara Foundation at Bangalore and
spends considerable time in advocating issues involved in the
Universalisation of Elementary Education.
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