Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is an Indian billionaire entrepreneur. She is the chairperson and managing director of Biocon Limited, a biotechnology company based in Bangalore, India and the former chairperson of Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.
The daughter of a brewmaster for India-based United Breweries, Mazumdar-Shaw originally planned to follow in her father’s footsteps. She earned an undergraduate degree in zoology from Bangalore University in 1973 and a graduate degree in brewing from the University of Ballarat, Melbourne, in 1975. Upon returning to India, however, she found no companies willing to offer a brewing job to a woman. Instead, she did consulting work for a few years before meeting Leslie Auchincloss, then owner of an Irish firm, Biocon Biochemicals. Impressed by Mazumdar-Shaw’s drive and ambition, Auchincloss took hWithin a year Biocon had become the first Indian company to export enzymes to the United States and Europe, but progress was slowed as Mazumdar-Shawer on as a partner in a new venture, Biocon India, which was launched in 1978 and produced enzymes for alcoholic beverages, paper, and other products. Within a year Biocon had become the first Indian company to export enzymes to the United States and Europe, but progress was slowed as Mazumdar-Shaw found it difficult to find employees in India who were willing to work for a woman. Nevertheless, the company had turned to profit in 1989. In 2001 Biocon became the first Indian company to gain the approval of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the manufacture of a cholesterol-lowering molecule. The company subsequently expanded exponentially. Profits jumped more than 42 percent in 2003 alone. After a wildly successful initial public stock offering the following year, Biocon’s stock-market value skyrocketed, and Mazumdar-Shaw, with a nearly 40-percent stake in the company, became the richest woman in India. Over the following years, Biocon continued its trail-blazing work, with the testing and development of the world’s first orally consumed insulin product among its most notable undertakings. Meanwhile, Mazumdar-Shaw became the recipient of numerous awards. The World Economic Forum recognized her as a “Technology Pioneer” in 2000, and Ernst & Young named her best entrepreneur in the field of health care and life sciences in 2002. She was honoured as the businesswoman of the year by the Economic Times in 2004. In 2005 Mazumdar-Shaw also received the Padma Bhushan Award, one of India’s highest civilian honours, for her pioneering work in industrial biotechnology.