Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is founder of Biocon, an Indian biopharma company. She is an inspirational entrepreneur who was born on 23rd March 1953 in Bangalore, India. She completed her initial schooling from Bishop’s Cotton Girl’s High School in 1968. She had aspired being a doctor instead she ended up doing her BSc in Zoology with Honors from Mount Carmel College of the Bangalore University in 1973. Two years later she completed her post graduate studies from Ballarat College, Melbourne University qualifying as a master brewer. Kiran began her professional career working as a trainee brewer at Carlton & United Beverages. After working there for four years she switched her job to work at Biocon Biochemicals Limited which was based in Ireland. Later on she founded Biocon in India with an initial capital of only 10,000 rupees.

Business was not easy due to lack of funds. All the banks she turned to for loans were hesitant because biotechnology was not a familiar concept in India at that time. Another reason was her gender. A female entrepreneur was another rare idea for Indians and one bringing in a completely new field was even stranger. She even had difficulty hiring people to work for her. Kiran began Biocon out of her garage and grew it into a globally competitive company. In 2004, Biocon went public and became only the second Indian company to reach $1 billion on its first trading day.

Kiran founded the Biocon Foundation which is a philanthropic organization carrying out environmental and health programs to help the weak parts of the society. In 2007, she also established a cancer care center in Bangalore. Kiran also founded Biocon Academy to crete a globally competitive biotech ecosystem in India and make the country’s youth employable. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw has received many honors and accolades for her entrepreneurial achievements such as the prestigious Nikkei Asia Prize for Regional Growth and Express Pharmaceutical Leadership Summit Award for Dynamic Entrepreneur in 2009. Biocon under the dynamic leadership of Kiran Mazumdar became the only Company from Asia to feature on the prestigious U.S.-based Science magazine's annual Top Global Pharma, Biotech Employers list and ranked No. 6 in 2019

"We feel Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is an inspiration VictoryTale and wish her a grand success"