Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (born 23 March 1953, Bangalore, India) is an Indian entrepreneur. She is the chairman and managing director of Biocon Limited, a biotechnology company based in Bangalore (Bengaluru), India and the current chairperson of IIM-Bangalore. In 2014, she was awarded the Othmer Gold Medal, for outstanding contributions to the progress of science and chemistry. She is on the Financial Times’ top 50 women in business list. As of 2015, she was listed as the 85th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes.

Early life and education

Kiran Mazumdar was born to Gujarati parents in Bangalore, India. She went to school at Bangalore’s Bishop Cotton Girl's High School, graduating in 1968. She then attended Mount Carmel College, Bangalore, a women's college offering pre-university courses as an affiliate of Bangalore University. She studied biology and zoology, graduating from Bangalore University with a B.Sc. in Zoology in 1973. Mazumdar hoped to go to medical school, but did not obtain a scholarship.