Shiv Nadar

Early Life
Shiv Nadar was born in 1946 in the former Tirunelveli district of Tamil Nadu. He graduated from PSG College of Technology in 1968 and moved to Delhi, where he took up a job with DCM's calculator division.

Career
Teaming up with five other entrepreneurs, Shiv Nadar formed Microcomp, a company that sold teledigital calculators in India. Later, he founded HCL in 1976, with a modest investment of 1,87,000 Rs, which was contributed by 6 founders. The companies prospects in the micro computer business grew strong when companies like IBM had to leave the country due to unfavorable policies adopted by the government. By 1980, the company had ventured into the international IT hardware market by opening Far East Computers in Singapore.

In order to address the rapidly rising demand for computer education, Nadar invested in NIIT in 1981. He maintained no managerial rights over the company, but was its largest shareholder.

By 1984, the companies attention was on designing micro computers and writing custom applications for clients on these systems. With the liberalization of regulations for importing technology, HCL found an opportunity to enter the personal computers solutions and UNIX platform based solutions scenario.

Through 1984, the company focused on designing microcomputers and writing custom applications for clients on these systems. When the Indian government liberalized regulations for import of technology, the computer market was in effect opened for adopting new global technologies. HCL utilized the opportunity to develop Personal computers solutions (called Busybee) and UNIX platform based solutions. The company also opened a successful office solutions subsidiary called HCL office Automation. By 1987, HCL's revenues were around Rs 100 crores and it featured as the numero uno company of India.

HCL America was setup in 1989, but was not very successful. With the ushering in of the economic reforms and foreign players, HCL joined HP and established the joint venture called HCL HP Limited, which provided solutions for local computing market and gave HCL its first experience in outsourced R&D. By the mid 90s, Shiv Nadar had secured rights to distribute Ericsson and Nokia products in India.

By 1995 Nadar had decided to shift companies focus on global IT services, and formed HCL Consulting for this purpose. It was renamed HCL Technologies in 1996 when the joint venture with HP was terminated.

Nadar took HCL Technologies public in 1999. When its IPO took place, HCL was the second biggest IT company. HCL completely shifted its focus towards R&D services to product engineering companies.

After some strategic acquisitions in 2001, HCL consolidated its number of companies from five to two in 2004, which were, HCL Technologies and HCL Infosystems.

In 2007, Shiv passed the mantle of CEO of HCL Technologies to Vineet Nayar. Shiv remains Chairman of HCL Technologies and it's largest shareholder.


Education and Healthcare

Nadar founded an engineering college in Chennai in 1996, and named it after his father. HE joined the executive board of Indian School of Business in 2005. In 2008, his SNN Trust initiated the setting up of seven Vidyagyan schools for students in UP for rural students.

He is also a member of the the Governing board of Public Health Foundation of India.

Recent Accolades
Shiv Nadar was awarded with the Padma Bhushan in 2008, in recognition for his contributions to the Indian IT industry.
The year before that. He was awarded an honorary doctorate degree by the Madras University for his efforts in promoting software technology. The same year. He was also named E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year 2007.