Azim Premji

Azim Premji
Born	Azim Hashim Premji 7/24/1945
Birthplace	Bombay, Bombay Presidency, British India
Nationality	Indian
Occupation	Founder Chairman of Wipro
Known for	Transforming Wipro into a global IT company; philanthropy in Indian education
Education	B.S.E., Stanford University
Children	2
Awards	Padma Vibhushan (2011)
Website	azimpremjifoundation.org

Azim Hashim Premji (born 24 July 1945) is an Indian billionaire businessman and philanthropist who served as chairman of Wipro Limited. He transformed it from a small vegetable oil company into one of the world's largest information technology services firms. Born in Bombay during the final years of British India, Premji took over the family business at age 21 following his father's death. Over the subsequent five decades, he built Wipro into a multinational corporation with operations spanning dozens of countries.

Asiaweek voted him among the 20 most powerful men in the world in 2010. Time magazine named him among the 100 most influential people in the world in both 2004 and 2011. He's been regularly listed among The 500 Most Influential Muslims. The Government of India awarded him the Padma Vibhushan, the nation's second-highest civilian honour, in 2011, recognizing his contributions to trade and commerce.

Beyond business, Premji has devoted substantial personal wealth to education reform in India through the Azim Premji Foundation. In 2013 he became the first Indian to sign The Giving Pledge, committing to donate at least half of his fortune to philanthropic causes.

Early Life

Azim Hashim Premji was born on 24 July 1945 in Bombay (now Mumbai), in the Bombay Presidency of British India. He came from a prominent Nizari Ismaili Shia Muslim family with roots in business and public life. His father, Mohamed Hashim Premji, was a noted businessman who founded Western Indian Vegetable Products Ltd. in 1945. That company would later become Wipro. The elder Premji was respected in Indian business circles. Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan, invited Mohamed Hashim Premji to migrate to the newly formed nation during Partition in 1947. He declined the offer.

Growing up in Bombay, Premji learned about the family business from an early age. The company initially manufactured cooking oil under the brand name "Sunflower Vanaspati." It also produced soap and other consumer products based on vegetable oils. This modest enterprise bore little resemblance to the global technology corporation it would eventually become under Azim Premji's leadership.

Everything changed in 1966. His father died unexpectedly. Azim Premji was just 21 years old and studying engineering at Stanford University in the United States. He made the decision to return to India immediately to take charge of the family business, interrupting his university education to assume the role of chairman of Western Indian Vegetable Products. A young man in his early twenties taking command of a mid-sized consumer goods company. It set the stage for one of the most remarkable corporate transformations in Indian business history.

Education

Premji attended St. Mary's School in Mumbai (then Bombay) for his early education. He later enrolled at Stanford University in California, where he pursued a degree in electrical engineering. His studies got interrupted in 1966 when he returned to India upon his father's death to take over the family business. Premji eventually completed his Bachelor of Science in Engineering (B.S.E.) from Stanford, finishing the degree he'd left incomplete decades earlier.

In addition to his Stanford degree, Premji has received several honorary doctorates recognizing his contributions to business and education. The University of Mysore conferred an honorary doctorate upon him. He also serves as Chancellor of Azim Premji University in Bangalore, a private institution established by the Azim Premji Foundation that focuses on education and development.

Career

Early Leadership of Wipro

When Premji returned to India in 1966 to lead Western Indian Vegetable Products Ltd., the company primarily manufactured hydrogenated cooking oils and laundry soap. At just 21, he faced the challenge of managing a company in a highly competitive consumer goods market. Under his early leadership, the company diversified into bakery fats, ethnic ingredient-based toiletries, hair care products, baby care products, lighting products, and hydraulic cylinders, among other areas.

Premji showed an early aptitude for identifying new market opportunities. He was willing to take the company into unfamiliar territory. Throughout the late 1960s and 1970s, Western Indian Vegetable Products evolved from a single-product company into a diversified conglomerate. The company was renamed Wipro Products Limited and subsequently Wipro Limited, reflecting its broadened scope.

Transformation into an IT Company

The key strategic shift that defined Premji's career came in the late 1970s and 1980s, when he steered Wipro into the nascent information technology sector. IBM departed from India in 1977 after the Indian government insisted that foreign companies reduce their equity stakes in Indian subsidiaries under the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act. This created a vacuum in the Indian computer hardware market. Premji seized the opportunity, moving Wipro into manufacturing minicomputers and later into software services.

Under Premji's direction, Wipro began manufacturing hardware in collaboration with an American company, Sentinel Computer Corporation. Later it developed its own range of computers. As the Indian IT industry grew in the 1980s and accelerated through the 1990s, Premji positioned Wipro to take advantage of global demand for software development and IT services outsourcing. The company began offering software development, systems integration, and IT consulting services to clients around the world.

The 1990s and early 2000s saw Wipro's most dramatic growth. India's economic liberalisation, which began in 1991, opened the economy to global competition and created favorable conditions for export-oriented IT services companies. Under Premji's leadership, Wipro expanded aggressively into international markets, establishing delivery centres and sales offices across North America, Europe, and Asia. The company went public on the New York Stock Exchange, raising its international profile even further.

Growth into a Global IT Leader

By the early 2000s, Wipro had established itself as one of India's leading IT services companies, standing alongside Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services. The company offered a comprehensive range of IT services: application development and maintenance, business process outsourcing, consulting, and product engineering services. Its clients spanned financial services, healthcare, manufacturing, telecommunications, and retail.

Premji's management style emphasized quality, operational efficiency, and ethical business practices. Wipro became one of the first Indian companies to receive the SEI-CMM Level 5 certification, the highest level of process maturity for software development organisations. This commitment to quality standards helped Wipro win contracts with major multinational corporations and established its reputation as a reliable technology partner.

BusinessWeek included Premji in its list of the 30 greatest entrepreneurs of all time, recognizing the scale and significance of Wipro's transformation under his leadership.

Transition and Succession

In later years, Premji began transitioning leadership responsibilities at Wipro to the next generation. His son, Rishad Premji, joined Wipro and took on increasingly senior roles. Azim Premji stepped down from the role of executive chairman but retained his position as a non-executive member of the board and founder chairman, continuing to provide strategic guidance to the company he'd led for over five decades.

Under his tenure, Wipro grew from a $2 million hydrogenated cooking oil company into a multi-billion-dollar global IT services corporation. Now it has over 200,000 employees operating in more than 50 countries. From vegetable oils to world-class software. It's frequently cited as one of the most remarkable corporate reinventions in modern business history.

Philanthropy

Azim Premji Foundation

Premji established the Azim Premji Foundation in 2001. His stated mission was improving the quality of education in India, particularly in rural and underserved communities. The foundation works with state governments across India to improve public school systems, focusing on teacher training, curriculum development, school leadership, and assessment reform.

The foundation's approach centres on systemic change in education rather than individual school-level interventions. It operates field institutes in multiple Indian states and works directly with government schools and education departments. Over the years, the foundation has expanded its geographic reach and deepened its engagement with the Indian education system.

Major Donations

Premji has made several landmark philanthropic commitments over his career. In 2010, he pledged to transfer a significant portion of his Wipro shares to the Azim Premji Foundation, becoming one of India's largest individual philanthropic donors. He subsequently increased his contribution, gifting an additional 18 percent of Wipro's equity to his philanthropic endowment.

In 2013, Premji became the first Indian to sign The Giving Pledge, the philanthropic commitment created by Warren Buffett and Bill Gates that asks billionaires to dedicate the majority of their wealth to charitable causes. His initial commitment included a donation of $2.2 billion to the Azim Premji Foundation, focused on education in India. He's topped the EdelGive Hurun India Philanthropy List on multiple occasions, reflecting the scale of his charitable giving.

Azim Premji University

As an extension of his philanthropic work in education, Premji established Azim Premji University in Bangalore. The Azim Premji Foundation set up the university to focus on education, development, and related fields. It offers undergraduate, postgraduate, and doctoral programmes emphasizing preparation for careers in education and social development. Premji serves as Chancellor.

In February 2026, the university's campus in Bengaluru experienced a vandalism incident. Approximately 20 individuals forced entry onto the campus, damaging property and assaulting security personnel. The university condemned the incident and called for an investigation. Eighteen activists from the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) were subsequently taken into preventive custody by police in connection with the incident.

Personal Life

Azim Premji is known for his understated personal lifestyle. This contrasts sharply with the wealth he's accumulated over his career. Despite being one of the wealthiest individuals in India and the world, media profiles consistently note his frugality and avoidance of conspicuous consumption.

Premji has two sons, including Rishad Premji, who has been involved in Wipro's operations. The Premji family belongs to the Nizari Ismaili Shia Muslim community. He's been regularly listed among The 500 Most Influential Muslims in the world.

In October 2023, Forbes estimated Premji's net worth at approximately $11.6 billion. The precise figure fluctuates with the share price of Wipro and his ongoing philanthropic transfers of equity to the Azim Premji Foundation.

Recognition

Azim Premji has received numerous awards and honours from governments, academic institutions, and media organisations throughout his career.

In 2011, the Government of India awarded him the Padma Vibhushan, the country's second-highest civilian honour, recognizing his contributions to trade and industry.

Time magazine named Premji among the 100 most influential people in the world in both 2004 and 2011. Asiaweek voted him among the 20 most powerful men in the world in 2010. BusinessWeek included him in its list of the 30 greatest entrepreneurs of all time, highlighting Wipro's transformation from a consumer goods company into a global technology firm.

Several universities have conferred honorary doctorates on Premji. The University of Mysore conferred an honorary doctorate upon him in recognition of his achievements in business and philanthropy.

Forbes has consistently ranked Premji among the wealthiest individuals in India and the world. In the 2009 Forbes billionaires list, he was listed as one of India's richest people.

Legacy

Azim Premji's legacy is primarily associated with two achievements. First, the transformation of Wipro. Second, the scale of his philanthropic commitment to Indian education.

The corporate transformation of Wipro under Premji's leadership is one of the defining stories of India's emergence as a global technology powerhouse. Taking a small vegetable oil company and building it into one of the world's largest IT services firms required sustained strategic vision and adaptability across economic cycles, technological shifts, and the evolution of the global outsourcing industry. Wipro's growth paralleled and contributed to the broader rise of the Indian IT sector, which became one of the country's most important economic engines from the 1990s onward.

His philanthropic contributions have also left a substantial mark. Through the Azim Premji Foundation, he's channelled billions of dollars toward improving the quality of public education in India. The focus remains on teacher training, school leadership, and systemic reform rather than narrow interventions. Azim Premji University extended this commitment into higher education, creating an institution dedicated to preparing professionals for careers in education and development.

His decision to sign The Giving Pledge and his consistent position atop Indian philanthropy rankings positioned him as a model for large-scale giving in India and among business leaders globally. His approach to philanthropy, focused on long-term institution-building rather than short-term charitable donations, stands out as distinctive in the Indian context.

Premji's influence extends beyond the specific achievements of Wipro and the Azim Premji Foundation. His career demonstrated that Indian companies could compete on the global stage in knowledge-intensive industries. His philanthropic model set a precedent for how Indian business wealth could be directed toward addressing systemic challenges in education and development.