Who is Narayana Murthy?

Infosys co-founder and billionaire businessman Narayana Murthy is the father-in-law of Rishi Sunak, who has been appointed Britain’s Prime Minister.

On Tuesday, Murthy wished his son-in-law on the big win. 

“Congratulations to Rishi. We are proud of him and wish him success. We are confident he will do his best for the people of the United Kingdom,” Murthy said in his first comments about Sunak’s win in the race to lead both the United Kingdom and the Conservative Party.

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Who is Narayana Murthy?

Narayana Murthy, whose full name is Nagavara Ramarao Narayana Murthy, founded Infosys in 1981. Born and raised in Shidlaghatta, Karnataka, Murthy graduated from the National Institute of Engineering, University of Mysore with a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering and a master’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur.

Before starting Infosys, he worked at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad as chief systems programmer, and Patni Computer Systems in Pune (Maharashtra).

He was the CEO of Infosys from 1981 to 2002, as well as the chairman from 2002 to 2011. In 2011, he stepped down from the board and became the chairman emeritus.

In June 2013, Murthy was appointed as the executive chairman for a period of five years.

In 2014, Murthy was ranked 13th among CNBC’s 25 global business leaders and listed among the ‘12 greatest entrepreneurs of our time’, by Fortune in 2012.

He has received Legion d’honneur from France, CBE from Britain, and Padma Vibhushan from India. The Economist ranked him among the 10 most-admired global business leaders in 2005.

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The 76-year-old is ranked among the top 10 Financial Times’ list of “Business pioneers in technology,” published in March 2015. He is the first Indian winner of Ernst and Young’s World Entrepreneur of the Year award.

Murthy was elected as a member of the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019. He is a foreign member of the US National Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Engineering.

He received the Founders Medal in 2018, the Hoover medal in 2012 and the Ernst Weber Medal in 2007, all the three from IEEE. He has received Thomas Jefferson medal and James C. Morgan Global Humanitarian Award.

Currently, Murthy serves on the boards of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, New Jersey, and the United Nations Foundation. He has served on the boards of Ford Foundation in New York, HSBC, and Unilever in London.

Murthy’s wife, Sudha Murthy, is a businesswoman, educator, author and the chairperson of the Infosys Foundation. Murthy has two children, a son, Rohan Murty, and a daughter, Akshata Murty.