Nandan Nilekani
Co-founder and Chairman, Infosys
Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay
Photo: World Economic Forum from Cologny, Switzerland, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
About
Nandan Mohanrao Nilekani is a co-founder of Infosys and the non-executive chairman of its board, a role he has held since August 2017. Born in Bengaluru, he studied at Bishop Cotton Boys' School and earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering from IIT Bombay. He began his career in 1978 at Patni Computer Systems in Mumbai, where he was hired by N. R. Narayana Murthy, and in 1981 he left with Murthy and five others to start Infosys. After serving as managing director, president and chief operating officer, he was CEO from March 2002 to April 2007, a period in which Infosys's revenue grew about sixfold to $3 billion, and then became co-chairman. In 2009 he left the company to become the founding chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India, with cabinet rank, where he led the creation of Aadhaar, the biometric ID system; he held the post until 2014. He has since worked on India's digital public infrastructure, including the Unified Payments Interface, and co-founded and chairs EkStep Foundation, a not-for-profit focused on children's literacy and numeracy. He is the author of 'Imagining India'.
Timeline: 1978, joins Patni Computer Systems; 1981, co-founds Infosys; March 2002, becomes CEO; April 2007, hands over to Kris Gopalakrishnan and becomes co-chairman; July 2009, leaves to chair UIDAI; 2014, contests the Lok Sabha election from Bangalore South for the Congress and loses; August 2017, returns as non-executive chairman after Vishal Sikka's exit; January 2023, named co-chair of a G20 task force on digital public infrastructure; July 2026, appointed to lead the government's high-powered task force on examination reforms. Honours include the Padma Bhushan (2006).
Source: en.wikipedia.org
