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 Ms. Kiran's Profile

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw
Chairman & Managing Director, Biocon Limited

A successful technocrat of global standing, Ms. Shaw heads India’s leading Biotechnology enterprise, Biocon. She is highly respected in the corporate world and has been recently voted by Nature Biotechnology as The Most Influential in Bio-business person outside Europe and USA. Her pioneering efforts in biotechnology have drawn global recognition both for Indian Industry and Biocon. 

Ms Shaw chairs Karnataka's Vision Group on Biotechnology and also served on the Board of Science Foundation, Ireland. She presently serves on the Advisory Council of the Government’s Department of Biotechnology where she has been instrumental in bringing government, industry and academia together, to chart a clear and progressive growth path for Biotechnology in India.  She is also part of the Prime Minister’s Council on Trade & Industry in India and the US-India CEO Forum. Ms. Shaw also serves as Member, Governing Body and General Body of the Indian Pharmacopoeia Commission, an Autonomous Body of the Government of India. She is also a founder member of the Society for the formation of "Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine" and is Member of the Board of Trade, Directorate General of Foreign Trade, Ministry of Commerce & Industry. Ms. Shaw has most recently been nominated as Member, Round Table on Skills Development, Ministry of Human Resources, Department of Education, Government of India.

Ms. Shaw is the recipient of several prestigious awards including the Nikkei Asia Prize, 2009 for Regional Growth, Express Pharmaceutical Leadership Summit Award 2009 for Dynamic Entrepreneur,  the Economic Times ‘Businesswoman of the Year’, the ‘Veuve Clicquot Initiative For Economic Development For Asia, Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Life Sciences & Healthcare, ‘Technology Pioneer’ recognition by World Economic Forum and The Indian Chamber of Commerce Lifetime Achievement Award. Her most cherished awards are the national awards, PADMASHRI (1989) and PADMA BHUSHAN (2005) presented to her by the President of India, for her pioneering efforts in Industrial Biotechnology.

Ms. Shaw received a graduate honors degree in Zoology from Bangalore University (1973) and qualified as a Master Brewer from Ballarat University, Australia (1975). Ms Shaw also received an honorary Doctorate of Science in 2004, from her alma mater, Ballarat University,  in recognition of her pre-eminent contributions to the field of Biotechnology.  She has also been awarded honorary doctorates from University of Abertay, Dundee, U.K. (2007), University of Glasgow, U.K. (2008) and Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, U.K. (2008).

Under her stewardship, Biocon has evolved from its inception in 1978 as an industrial enzymes company to a fully integrated Biopharmaceutical enterprise encompassing a well balanced business portfolio of products and services with a research focus on Diabetes, Oncology and Auto-immune disease.  During this transition, Biocon has established 2 subsidiaries:  Syngene (1994) to provide development support services for discovery research and Clinigene (2000) to cater to services in clinical development. 

A leading US trade publication, Med Ad News, in its 2007/08 listings has ranked Biocon 20th amongst the leading biotechnology companies in the world and the 7th largest Biotech employer in the world. Biocon also recently received the 2009 BioSingapore Asia Pacific Biotechnology Award for Best Listed Company

She is married to John Shaw, a Scotsman and Indophile, who headed a leading textiles MNC, Madura Coats from 1991-1998 as Chairman and Managing Director. John Shaw is currently the Vice-Chairman, Biocon Limited.