Azim Premji
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Azim Premji (born July 24, 1945) is an Indian businessman, and the richest person in the country (from 1999 to 2005 according to Forbes). He is a graduate in Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, USA. At the age of 21, Premji joined Wipro, his father's vegetable oil business (then) (in 1966) after the sudden demise of his father.
In 2000, he was voted among the 20 most powerful men in the world by Asiaweek. He was also among the 50 richest people in the world from 2001 to 2003 according to Forbes. According to a 2003 BBC report, he is "regarded as an Indian Bill Gates". In April 2004, he was rated among the 100 most influential people in the world by Time magazine. His assets include 74% of Wipro, the remaining 26 percent belonging to the cofounder of Wipro. Premji is now the chairman of Wipro. Wipro grew from a company of US $1.5 million to a giant of $1.4 billion under his leadership. Premji's company dealt in hydrogenated cooking fats, along with consumer products. Now, however Wipro is one of India's largest software companies and is ranked among the top 100 technology companies globally.
See also
External links
- Profile on Wipro.com (http://www.wipro.com/aboutus/azim.htm)
- Forbes.com: Forbes World's Richest People (http://www.forbes.com/finance/lists/10/2004/LIR.jhtml?passListId=10&passYear=2004&passListType=Person&uniqueId=1UFS&datatype=Person)
- Profile on virtualbangalore.com (http://www.virtualbangalore.com/Ppl/PplPremji.php)
- "Defining moments:Azim Premji" (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/3064335.stm) - BBC News dated July 2003