Kris Gopalakrishnan

Kris Gopalakrishnan

Indian billionaire

Senapathy “Kris” Gopalakrishnan is an Indian businessman and the chairman of Axilor Ventures, a startup accelerator. He is one of the co-founders of Infosys, having served as its CEO and managing director from 2007 to 2011 and vice chairman from 2011 to 2014.2

From Wikipedia’s article on Kris Gopalakrishnan (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Born Apr 5, 1955.1

About

Recognised as a global business and technology thought leader, he was voted the top CEO (IT Services category) in Institutional Investor's inaugural ranking of Asia's Top Executives and selected as one of the winners of the second Asian Corporate Director Recognition Awards by Corporate Governance Asia in 2011. He was elected president of India's apex industry chamber Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for 2013–14 and served as one of the co-chairs of the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2014.

In January 2011, the Government of India awarded Gopalakrishnan the Padma Bhushan, the country's third-highest civilian honour.

Gopalakrishnan serves on the board of governors of Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, is the chairman of the Council of Indian Institute of Science, and is the chairman of the board of governors of International Institute of Information Technology, Bangalore. He is the chairman of the Vision Group on Information Technology of Karnataka Government, the chairman of RBIH (Reserve Bank of India Innovation Hub), and the chairman of CII Centre of Excellence in Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Startups (CIES). He is also President of Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Trivandrum.

Gopalakrishnan is the chairman of Itihaasa Research and Digital which publishes the history of the Indian IT industry as microsite as well as reports on industrial and academic research in India. He is the Co-author of Against All Odds – The IT Story of India.

From Wikipedia’s article on Kris Gopalakrishnan, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2

Companies

Early life and education

  • Date not recordedGovernment Model Boys Higher Secondary School3
  • Date not recordedUniversity College Thiruvananthapuram3
  • Date not recordedIndian Institute of Technology Madras3

Gopalakrishnan was born in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala on 5 April 1955. He studied at the Government Model Boys Higher Secondary School.

He obtained an M.Sc. in Physics in 1977 and M.Tech. in Computer Science in 1979, both from IIT Madras. He started his career as a software engineer with Patni Computer Systems, Mumbai, in 1979.

Positions in research / educational institutions and bodies

Chairing the governing board of India's ₹36.6 billion (US$495.14 million) National Mission on Cyber-Physical System Technologies

Board of Governors of Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology

Chairman, The Council, IISc Bangalore

Chairman, Board of Governors of IIIT, Bangalore

Member of DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance's Strategic Advisory Council

Nanyang Professor of the Practice at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore from 1 June 2018

Trustee of the Infosys Science Foundation

From Wikipedia’s article on Kris Gopalakrishnan (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Career

Occupation: computer scientist.5

Support for research and entrepreneurship in India

Through Axilor Ventures, Gopalakrishnan has invested in many startups and venture funds. He has put his wealth towards causes such as health research, specifically brain science, and other technological innovations.

Gopalakrishnan is supporting and guiding several India-focused initiatives, through his leadership roles in various Government committees/bodies and philanthropic initiatives, in the following areas:

From Wikipedia’s article on Kris Gopalakrishnan (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Personal life

  • BornApr 5, 1955, Thiruvananthapuram6
  • CitizenshipIndia7

Healthcare

Gopalakrishnan has furthered ageing research in India through the Srinivasapura Aging Neuro Senescence and Cognition Study, and GenomeIndia, a pan-India initiative focused on Whole Genome Sequencing of 10,000 individuals from representative populations across India. He is also supporting the Accelerator Program for Discovery in Brain Disorders using Stem Cells at the National Centre for Biological Sciences in Bangalore, Karnataka.

He is on the Board of Swasth Digital Health Foundation, a not-for-profit consortium charting an innovative healthcare model in India.

From Wikipedia’s article on Kris Gopalakrishnan (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Philanthropy

Brain science and computer science

Gopalakrishnan has contributed ₹2.25 billion (equivalent to ₹3.9 billion or US$41 million in 2026) to develop a Centre for Brain Research at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore. He is the donor of the largest philanthropic gift ever received by the 105-year-old institute from an individual. He has contributed an additional ₹600 million (equivalent to ₹990 million or US$10 million in 2026) to set up distinguished visiting chairs in Neurocomputing and Data Science at the IISc Bengaluru and Indian Institute of Technology Madras of Chennai.

Another project Gopalakrishnan has funded at IIT Madras is the "Sudha Gopalakrishnan Brain Centre", which he says is the first of its kind in the world. The centre is undertaking the cellular-level image mapping of the brain.

Gopalakrishnan is chairing the governing board of India's ₹36.6 billion (US$380 million) National Mission on Cyber-Physical System Technologies which is overseeing the establishment of 25 hubs related to CPS and allied technologies.

From Wikipedia’s article on Kris Gopalakrishnan (this version), CC BY-SA 4.0.

Awards

  • Date not recordedPadma Bhushan8

Sources

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