When you are ready for challenges, no challenge is big enough. Born and brought up in Bangalore, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw was an ordinary girl with an extraordinary drive to do something different.
After her schooling from Bishop Cotton Girl’s High School (1968) she wanted to join medical school but ended taking up biology and completed her BSc Zoology Honors from Bangalore University in 1973. Then something in her made her move to Melbourne and pursue a post-graduation degree in Malting and Brewing from Ballarat College, Melbourne University (1975).
In fact her degree also took her to jobs in various breweries. But while she was busy with her jobs at various breweries, something else was brewing in her mind. In 1978, she joined Biocon Biochemicals Limited, of Cork, Ireland as a Trainee Manager. In the same year she began a dream project, Biocon from the garage of her rented house in Bangalore with a sum of Rs. 10,000.
All of 25, Kiran had some challenging times ahead. But the tagline for her business “The difference lies in our DNA” probably describes the lady’s drive. Not the one to give up, she chased her mission with single-minded dedication.
Soon Biocon started evolving from an industrial enzymes company to a fully integrated Biopharmaceutical enterprise. The lady’s work has earned her several prestigious awards, including the Padma Shri (1989) and the Padma Bhushan (2005) from the government of India. She has also been named among TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world and been on the Forbes list of the world’s 100 most powerful women, and the Financial Times’ top 50 women in business list.
Kiran Mazumdar Shaw as she came to be called after marrying John Shaw is clearly steering her business to newer heights.
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