4. Azim Premji was born on
July 24, 1945, in Bombay
(now Mumbai), India, into
a Nizari Ismaili Shia
Muslim family. His father
Mohamed Hashem Premji
was a prominent
businessman who founded
the Western Indian
Vegetable Products Ltd., a
company dealing in
vegetable products and
refined oils. One of its
most famous products was
“Vanaspati”, a
hydrogenated shortening.
In 1947 British India was
partitioned into India and
Pakistan, and Jinnah
invited the senior Premji
to come to Pakistan.
However the family, in
spite of being a Muslim
one, chose to stay back in
India.
After completing his
schooling, Azim Premji
went to the US to study
engineering from Stanford
University. However, his
father died unexpectedly
shortly before his
graduation in 1966 and he
had to return home to take
control of the business. He
would officially complete
his Bachelor of Science in
Electrical Engineering
years later.
5. Azim Premji took control of his
father’s business in 1966 when he
was just 21 years old.
At that time the company primarily dealt in
hydrogenated oil manufacturing.Soon after assuming control,
Premji began to look for
diversification opportunities and
strove to expand the business
beyond refined oils. Soon the company diversified to
include bakery fats, toiletries, light
bulbs, hair care products, and
hydraulic cylinders in its portfolio.
Since the company no longer dealt with just
vegetable products, Premji renamed it “Wipro” in
1977.
In 1979, the Indian
government expelled the
computer firm IBM from
the country.
Premji saw this as a great opportunity for tapping
into the emerging computer hardware and
software market and began moving Wipro into
the computer business.
6. Over the 1980s the company collaborated with
several other businesses in the computer field,
including an American company Sentinel
Computer Corporation, to form partnerships
and positioned Wipro as a successful
manufacturer of computer hardware.
Eventually the company
entered the software market
too.
Driven by the quest to achieve
the highest standards of quality,
Premji ensured that his company
hired the best brains in software
engineering and provided them
with world-class training to
further hone their skills.
This helped Wipro to develop high-quality
software at considerably lower costs as
compared to American companies,
enabling Wipro to successfully export
custom software to the US.
The company enjoyed
immense success and
Wipro’s value surged to
great heights by the late
1990s.
The growing wealth of the company also
ensured that Premji became one of the
richest businessmen in the world.
7. Azim Premji inherited Western
Indian Vegetable Products Ltd, a
company producing hydrogenated
cooking oil, and transformed it into
Wipro, an IT Consulting and
System Integration services
company which is today one of the
largest IT Services firm in the
World.
The company has its presence in 67
countries and has a market
capitalization of approximately $ 35
billion as on March 2015.
8. PhilanthropicWorks
Azim Premji has a deep faith in giving
back to the society.
He founded the Azim Premji Foundation, a
non-profit organization, in 2001.
Through this foundation he aims to
contribute towards achieving quality
education for all in rural India in order to
build a more equitable and sustainable
society.
The foundation functions in several states
including Karnataka, Rajasthan,
Pondicherry, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar.
He is the first Indian to sign up for The
Giving Pledge, a campaign led by Warren
Buffett and Bill Gates.
The campaign aims to encourage the
world’s wealthiest people to make a
commitment to give most of their wealth
to philanthropic causes.
9. Azim Premji Trust
• During December 2010,
Premji promised to provide 2
billion dollars for making
school education in the
country better than what it
was.
• He transferred equity shares
– amounting to 213 million
in number – from his
company to the Azim Premji
Trust.
• This is supposed to be the
biggest ever educational
donation in the country.
Azim Premji
University
• The Azim Premji University
was set up as per an act
passed by the legislative
assembly of Karnataka.
• Its main aim is to conceive
and execute programmes that
can help in the development
of the overall educational
scenario as well as a well-
trained workforce.
• It also attempts to provide
substitute models for
changing the educational
scenario.
• The university also puts in
money in educational
research with the end aim of
widening the horizon of
educational thoughts in India.
Participation in The
Giving Pledge
• The Giving Pledge is a
campaign, a brainchild of
Bill Gates and Warren Buffet.
• Its primary aim is to provide
encouragement to rich people
to come forward and commit
a part of their riches to
philanthropic activities.
• Azim Premji is the first
Indian to have signed up for
the programme.
• As of April 2013, Premji
has donated at least 25% of
his personal wealth to the
said charity.
