Shiv Nadar, is an Indian entrepreneur,
IT executive, educationalist, bridge player, one of
India’s richest people and the Chairman and Chief
Strategy Officer of HCL Technologies. Shiv Nadar founded
HCL in the mid-1970s and transformed the IT hardware
company into an IT Enterprise over the next three
decades by constantly reinventing his company’s focus.
In 2008, Nadar was awarded Padma Bhushan for his efforts
in IT industry. Nadar, nicknamed by friends as Magnus
(Persian for Wizard), since mid-1990s has focused his
efforts in developing the educational system of India
through SSN Trust.
Nadar had less success with his ventures outside the IT and software industry. His partnership with Singapore Telecom to address the now-booming Indian Telecom market was unsuccessful as well as his attempts in the granite and aquaculture business.
In 1996, Shiv Nadar founded SSN College of Engineering in Chennai, Tamil Nadu in the name of his father – Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar. Shiv Nadar takes active role in the college activities including gifting of 1 million HCL shares to the college. In 2006, Nadar announced that the college will promote research apart from ensuring that students benefit from foreign university tie-ups. Nadar joined the Executive Board of Indian School of Business in 2005.In March 2008, Nadar’s SSN Trust announced setting up of Seven Vidyagyan schools in UP for rural students where free scholarship will be provided for 100 students from 10 districts of Uttar Pradesh.
Shiv Nadar is a member of the Governing board of Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI). PHFI was started by Rajat Gupta to “redress the limited institutional capacity in India for strengthening training, research and policy development in the area of Public Health”.
Married to Kiran, they went a daughter Roshni that today is the Vice President of HCL.