Mazumdar-Shaw, Kiran

▪ 2006

 By 2005 Indian businesswoman Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw had completed a remarkable rise from struggling entrepreneur to leader of India's premier biotechnology firm and winner of numerous international awards for her business achievements. As chairman and managing director of Biocon India Group, Mazumdar-Shaw headed up a pioneering enterprise that utilized India's homegrown scientific talent to make breakthroughs in clinical research.

      In 2001 Biocon became the first Indian company to gain the approval of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the manufacture of a cholesterol-lowering molecule, and in 2005 the company was awaiting FDA approval to begin clinical trials on the world's first orally consumed insulin. Mazumdar-Shaw was honoured as the businesswoman of the year by the Economic Times in late 2004. This followed a phenomenal performance by her company over the prior 12 months, during which Biocon's profits had jumped 42% to $45 million. After a wildly successful initial public stock offering held in March 2004, Biocon's stock-market value shot to $1.2 billion. With her nearly 40% stake in the company, Mazumdar-Shaw had a personal net worth of well over $400 million—enough to make her the richest woman in India.

      Mazumdar-Shaw was born on March 23, 1953, in Pune, Maharashtra state, India. Her father was a brewmaster for India-based United Breweries, and Mazumdar-Shaw set out to follow in his footsteps, earning an undergraduate degree in zoology from Bangalore University in 1973 and a graduate degree in brewing from the University of Ballarat, Melbourne, in 1975. Upon returning to India, however, she found no companies willing to offer a brewing job to a woman. Instead, she did consulting work for a few years before meeting Leslie Auchincloss, then owner of an Irish firm, Biocon Biochemicals. Impressed by her drive and ambition, Auchincloss took Mazumdar-Shaw on as a partner in a new venture, Biocon India, launched in 1978 to produce enzymes for alcoholic beverages, paper, and other products.

      Within a year Biocon had become the first Indian company to export enzymes to the U.S. and Europe, but progress was slowed as Mazumdar-Shaw continued to face skepticism and discrimination. She found it difficult to find employees in India who were willing to work for a woman. Investors were equally hard to come by, and some vendors refused to do business with her unless she hired a male manager. Nevertheless, the company had begun to turn a profit by the time Auchincloss sold his interest in Biocon India to Unilever in 1989. Imperial Chemical Industries bought Unilever's stake in 1997 but eventually agreed to sell its shares to Mazumdar-Shaw's husband, textile executive John Shaw, who subsequently joined Biocon's management team.

      As Biocon grew steadily, awards began to pour in for Mazumdar-Shaw. The World Economic Forum recognized her as a “Technology Pioneer” in 2000, and Ernst & Young named her best entrepreneur in the health care and life sciences field in 2002. In January 2005 Mazumdar-Shaw also received the Padma Bhushan award, one of India's highest civilian honours, for her pioneering work in industrial biotechnology.

Sherman Hollar

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