Business mogul Nagavara Ramarao Narayana Murthy was born in India on August 20, 1946. He is one of the company's seven co-founders, and before retiring and assuming the title chairman emeritus, he held the positions of chairman, chief executive officer (CEO), president, and chief mentor. His net worth was estimated to be $4.1 billion as of April 2023, ranking him as the 711th richest person in the world by Forbes.
Murthy was nurtured in Shidlaghatta, Karnataka, where he was born. Murthy worked as the chief systems programmer at the Indian Institute of Management in Ahmedabad and at Patni Computer Systems in Pune, Maharashtra, prior to founding Infosys. He founded Infosys in 1981, serving as CEO from that year to 2002 and chairman from that year to 2011. He retired from the board and was named chairman emeritus in 2011. Murthy was chosen to serve as executive chairman for a five-year term in June 2013.
Early Life And Career
On August 20, 1946, N. R. Narayana Murthy was born into a middle-class Kannada Hindu family in Sidlaghatta, a city in the state of Karnataka in southwest India. After finishing his education, he enrolled at the National Institute of Engineering, where he earned a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 1967. He graduated with a master's degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur in 1969.
At IIM Ahmedabad, Murthy originally served as a research associate for a faculty member before rising to the position of principal systems programmer. For Electronics Corporation of India Limited, he designed and implemented a BASIC interpreter while working on India's first time-sharing computer system. He founded the business Softronics. He joined Patni Computer Systems in Pune after that business failed after roughly a year and a half.
Murthy has served as a director on the boards of DBS Bank, Unilever, ICICI, and NDTV. He is currently an independent director on the corporate board of HSBC. As a trustee of the Rhodes Trust, the Infosys Prize, the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and other educational and charitable organisations, he also serves on their advisory boards and councils. These organisations include Cornell University, INSEAD, ESSEC, Ford Foundation, the UN Foundation, the Indo-British Partnership, Asian Institute of Management, and INSEAD. Additionally, he serves as the Public Health Foundation of India's Chairman of the Governing Board. He serves on the British Telecommunications advisory board for Asia Pacific.
Murthy rejoined Infosys as executive chairman and a director in June 2013. He stepped down as executive chairman in June 2014, served as non-executive chairman until October, and then was named chairman emeritus. Murthy also serves on the strategic board, which provides strategic, policy, and governance advice to Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, a major legal firm. He belongs to the International Advisory Board (IAB) of IESE.
In 2016, Murthy discussed "How To Be a Better Manager" in an interview with Harvard Business Review Ascend. Murthy expressed worries about suspected corporate governance failings at Infosys in 2017, however the business later refuted these allegations.
Private Life
Sudha Murty, his wife, is a teacher, an author, a philanthropist, and the head of the Infosys Foundation. Rohan Murty, a son, and Akshata Murty, a daughter, are Murthy's two children. Rohan began working for Infosys in June 2013 as his father's executive assistant. In June 2014, he departed Infosys. Akshata married British politician Rishi Sunak in 2009; he eventually rose to prominence as Richmond's MP, Conservative Party leader, and prime minister of the United Kingdom.
Books
1. A Better India: A Better World, Penguin Books, 2009
2. A Clear Blue Sky: Stories and Poems on Conflict and Hope, Puffin Books India, 2017
3. The Wit and Wisdom of Narayana Murthy, Hay House, 2016
4. Mere Business Mantra [Hindi]