Kiran Mazumdar Shaw

Born: March 23, 1953

Achievement: Chairman & Managing Director of Biocon Ltd; Felicitated with Padmashri (1989) and Padma Bhushan (2005).

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw is the Chairman & Managing Director of Biocon Ltd, India's biggest biotechnology company. In 2004, she became India's richest woman.

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw was born on March 23, 1953 in Bangalore. She had her schooling at Bishop Cotton Girls School and Mount Carmel College at Bangalore. After doing completing her B.Sc. in Zoology from Bangalore University in 1973, she went to Ballarat University in Melbourne, Australia and qualified as a master brewer.

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw started her professional career as trainee brewer in Carlton & United Beverages in 1974. In 1978, she joined as Trainee Manager with Biocon Biochemical Limited in Ireland. In the same year, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw founded Biocon India in collaboration with Biocon Bio chemicals Limited, with a capital of Rs.10,000. She initially faced many problems regarding funds for her business. Banks were hesitant to give loan to her as biotechnology was a totally new field at that point of time and she was a woman entrepreneur, which was a rare phenomenon.

Biocon's initial operation was to extract an enzyme from papaya. Under Kiran Mazumdar Shaw's stewardship Biocon transformed from an industrial enzymes company to an integrated biopharmaceutical company with strategic research initiatives. Today, Biocon is recognised as India's pioneering biotech enterprise. In 2004, Biocon came up with an IPO and the issue was over-subscribed by over 30 times. Post-IPO, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw held close to 40% of the stock of the company and was regarded as India's richest woman with an estimated worth of Rs. 2,100 crores.

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw is the recipient of several prestigious awards. These include ET Businesswoman of the Year, Best Woman Entrepreneur, Model Employer, Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Life Sciences & Healthcare, Leading Exporter, Outstanding Citizen, Technology Pioneer, etc. Government of India also felicitated her with Padmashri (1989) and Padma Bhushan (2005).
She is a civic activist, especially with respect to municipal administration in Bangalore. She is also an art collector. She has authored 'Ale and Arty,' a Coffee table book about brewing beer illustrated by paintings of some of India's renowned artists. Famous brewing families and beer firms are the subject of the book. In 1998, she married John Shaw, an expatriate manager and Indophile from Scotland at Madura Coats. John Shaw resigned as the managing director of Madura Coats the same year and joined Biocon as its Director for International Business and the Vice Chairman of the Board. He is also a great enthusiastic trekker.

In an interview with the Deccan Herald dated September 9th, 2003, Ms. Shaw revealed pride in Bangalore, the city where she was born and brought up and her disappointment about the changing beauty of old Bangalore she knows. In her interview, Ms. Shaw lamented at the crumbling beauty of Bangalore that was at one time a paradise city with a soul. She felt that Bangalore has a unique culture of its own and the infrastructure had not kept pace with development and hence led to decay in the beauty of the city. She felt that Bangalore culture includes its own theatres, food, music, academics, architecture. "There are very few cities in India where academicians and scientists are glorified the way they are in Bangalore", she said.

In her effort to preserve the character of Bangalore, she has been proactively involved in various city improvement plans like the Bangalore Agenda Task Force (BATF). Being a lover of art and arty things, her office is adorned with artifacts and paintings by Yusuf Arakkal and various other artistes reflect her feelings. She has been a trustee of the Karnataka Chitra Kala Parishat as well.

Ms Shaw holds very dear the MV Memorial Award she was given (MV popularly stands as a nick name for the great visionary Sir M Vishwesharaiah, architect of modern Karnataka). According to Ms. Shaw, she personally knew Sir MV and they were good family friends. The award reminded her of her childhood days and she felt honoured to receive it.