Ramalinga Raju's Profile

Born: September 16, 1954
Achievement: Founder and Chairman of Satyam Computer Services Ltd; Chosen as Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for Services in 1999

Ramalinga Raju is one of the pioneers of the Information Technology industry in India. He is the founder and Chairman of Satyam Computer Services Ltd.

Ramalinga Raju was born on September 16, 1954 in a family of farmers. He did his B. Com from Ramalinga RajuAndhra Loyola College at Vijayawada and subsequently did his MBA from Ohio University, USA. Ramalinga Raju had a stint at Harvard too. He attended the Owner / President course at Harvard.

After returning to India in 1977, Ramalinga Raju moved away from the traditional agriculture business and set up a spinning and weaving mill named Sri Satyam. . Thereafter he shifted to the real estate business and started a construction company called Satyam Constructions. In 1987, Ramalinga Raju founded Satyam Computer Services along with one of his brothers-in-law, DVS Raju. The company went public in 1992. With the launch of Satyam Infoway (Sify) Satyam became one of the first to enter Indian internet service market. Today, Satyam has a global presence and serves 44 Fortune 500 and over 390 multinational corporations.

Ramalinga Raju has won several awards and honors. These include Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for Services in 1999, Dataquest IT Man of the Year in 2000, and CNBC's Asian Business Leader - Corporate Citizen of the Year award in 2002.
B. Ramalinga Raju
Ramalinga Raju, also known as Raju, is Satyam’s founder and chairman. Raju is a world-renowned visionary, global business leader, and thinker. He uses a simple, yet extensive management model to create value, which promotes entrepreneurship, a focus on the customer, and the constant pursuit of excellence. Raju is passionate about developing leaders within his organizations and has conceptualized / institutionalized the Full Life Cycle Leadership (FLCL) model—a unique entrepreneurship framework that develops leaders at all levels of Satyam.

Raju has an MBA from Ohio University, and is an alumnus of the Harvard Business School. He has won numerous awards not only for building a best-in-class business but also taking innovative steps to positively impact the society. Some of the awards won by Raju include: the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year (2007), CNBC’s Asian Business Leader—Corporate Citizen of the Year (2002), Dataquest IT Man of the Year (2000), and the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year for Services (1999).

Raju’s keen understanding of IT and institution building has enabled him to contribute to policy formulation in India and abroad. He was the ex-chairman of the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM), a 1,100-member industry body of Indian IT services companies. He is:

* A member of the National Executive Councils of the two national business associations of India: CII and FICCI
* A member of the International Advisory Panel of Malaysia’s Multimedia Super-Corridor
* A member of the conference board

Raju also serves on the boards of several educational, research, and not-for-profit institutions. Moreover, he tirelessly creates greater social equity and provides opportunities to underprivileged through institutions he has established: the Satyam Foundation, the Byrraju Foundation, and EMRI.

A voracious reader, Raju is deeply influenced by science. He has adopted several scientific principles in running business operations.