Nandan Nilekani

He met Rohini at a quizzing event; soon they fell in love and got married. They are blessed with two children, Nihar and Janhavi. Both of their children are undergraduates from the prestigious Yale University, United States.

He was born on June 2, 1955 in Bangalore, Karnataka, India to middle class parents, Mohan Rao Nilekani and his wife, Durga.

He received his early education from the Bishop Cotton Boys' School and St. Joseph High School in Dharwad.

Then he attended the Karnataka PU College, Dharwad and later completed his B.Tech in electrical engineering from IIT Bombay in 1978.

In 1978, he was interviewed by N.R. Narayana Murthy for his first job and got selected at the Mumbai-based ‘Patni Computer Systems’.

In 1981, he along with Murthy and five others, left their jobs and founded their own company by the name of ‘Infosys’.

For over two decades at Infosys, he held various posts in the company such as managing director, president, and chief operating officer.

In March 2002, he became the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Infosys, a post he held till April 2007.

In 2007, after resigning from the post of CEO, he became the co-chairman of the board of directors of the company.

One of his most notable works is the establishment of ‘Infosys’ in 1981 along with Narayana Murthy and a few other software professionals. With their hard work and extraordinary talent, the company became the top most name in the Indian IT industry over the next twenty years.

Being the chairman of UIDAI, he was responsible for the task of creating the biometric database of the entire population of India and to provide a unique identification number for all residents of India known as ‘Aadhaar’.

Working as philanthropists, he and his wife contributed generously for non-profit efforts in water infrastructure, micro-credit, and social research over the years. They also invested in education and healthcare by donating a fair share of their wealth for the welfare of society.