Shiv Nadar is the Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer of HCL Technologies. He established HCL Technologies in the mid-1970s and then transformed the IT hardware company into an IT Enterprise over the years. His hometown is Moolaipozhi village in the former Tirunelveli District of TamilNadu, India. He was born in the year 1946. He finished his graduation in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from PSG College of Technology in 1968. He kicked off his career in DCM`s calculator division. He along with his existing board members had started Microcomp to sell teledigital calculators under the brand name Televista. In 1976, HCL was established with an investment of Rs 187,000 and added Uttar Pradesh government as a 26% equity partner. The company got a break in the year 1977 when foreign companies like IBM left the country due to the policies adopted by the then Industrial minister George Fernandes. Nadar had consolidated his business into 5 entities in the year 1998 namely HCL Technologies (global IT service company), HCL Infosystems (Indian IT hardware leader), HCL comnet (network services company), HCL Perot (IT applications) and NIIT (education services). The number of companies in HCL was consolidated from five to two - HCL Technologies and HCL Infosystems by 2004. Vineet Nayar took over from Shiv Nadar as CEO of HCL Technologies in 2007. Shiv remains Chairman of HCL Technologies and its largest shareholder. Awards and accolades In 2008, Government of India awarded Shiv Nadar with Padma Bhushan, the third highest civilian award for his contribution to IT industry. In 2007, Madras University awarded him honorary doctorate degree (D Sc) for his contributions in promoting software technology. Nadar was also recognized as E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year 2007 (Services). In October 2006, Shiv Nadar received an honorary fellowship from All India Management Association-AIMA.
