Wipro announced on April 21 that Rishad Premji, son of Azim Premji, to the board of directors of Wipro.
The move, although expected, didn't get down well with some. TK Kurien, CEO and ED, Wipro, to pacify, said that not a lot should be read into this as the move represents shareholders' interests.
Who is Rishad Premji?
Rishad Premji, elder son of Wipro’s chairman Azim Premji is currently working as a Chief Strategy Officer and Head of Investor Relations & Corporate Affairs of Wipro Limited since 2007.
Suresh Senapaty -- a Wipro veteran -- retired in March 2015 vacating the board seat that Rishad Premji will be occupying.
Rishad is already on the Board of Wipro Enterprises Limited, Wipro-GE Healthcare Pvt. Ltd., and the Azim Premji Foundation.
Rishad is a BA in Ecomomics from Wesleyan University in the US and has an MBA from Harvard Business school.
He has also spent a year at the London School of Economics (LSE) where he was part of the General Course Program.
In 2014, he was recognized as a Young Global Leader 2014 by the World Economic Forum.
He owns around 0.03 % Shares Wipro -- India’s leading software and consultancy company.
Premji joined Wipro in 2007 as a business manager and spent a couple of years helping the mergers and acquisitions team.
He started his career at Wipro with the banking unit, moved to investor relations and is now part of a 20-employee strong strategy team that he leads.
Apart from strategy, Rishad also leads non-IT businesses of Wipro which includes lighting, furniture, consumer care products and infrastructure engineering services.
Before joining Wipro in 2007, Rishad worked at GE capital in US for four years and followed by Bain & Co in London for two years.
Rishad, at Wipro, set up a $100 million fund called Wipro Ventures to invest in start-ups in India.
Since the set up of this fund, Wipro has reviewed many startups in India as well as in the US.
