Satyam founder Ramalingam Raju awarded Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year award for 2007
21 Nov 2007
B Ramalinga Raju, chief of Satyam Computer Services'' Ltd., which is also one of India''s top IT companies, was chosen as the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year 2007 from an eminent list of over 170 nominees, by a jury presided over by ICICI Bank managing director and CEO K V Kamath.
He will now represent the country at Ernst & Young''s World Entrepreneur of the Year Award, to be held in Monte Carlo, Monaco in May, 2008. Last year''s winner was Canadian Guy Laliberté, founder and CEO of Cirque du Soleil, who had been named as World Entrepreneur in Monte Carlo on 2 June 2007.
The selection jury comprised other luminaries of the industry such as Biocon''s Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Aditya Birla Group''s Kumar Mangalam Birla, Omnicom''s Keki Dadiseth, Chrysalis'' Ashish Dhawan, and Tata Consultancy Services'' S Ramadorai.
The event was graced by the presence of Vice President M Hamid Ansari, and Delhi''s Chief Minister Sheila Dixit, who were the guests of honour.
Nine other individuals were awarded across different categories, with Mahindra Group patriarch Keshub Mahindra being honoured with the Lifetime Entrepreneur of the Year award. This award had been introduced in the United States in 1986, and had its Indian beginning in 1999. Some of the previous recipients from India include Ratan Tata, Narayana Murthy, Sunil Mittal and Mukesh Ambani.
The complete list of awardees is as under:
- Entrepreneur of the Year: B Ramalinga Raju, chairman & founder, Satyam Computer Services
- Lifetime Entrepreneur of the Year: Keshub Mahindra, chairman, Mahindra Group
- Entrepreneur of the Year - Services: Shiv Nadar, chairman & chief strategy officer, HCL Enterprises
- Entrepreneur of the Year - Healthcare & Life Sciences: Cyrus Poonawalla, CMD, Serum Institute of India
- Startup Entrepreneur of the Year: Major Kumar Upadhyay, founder & managing director, Acme Tele Power
- Entrepreneur of the Year - Business Transformation: Raghav Bahl, managing director, Network 18
- Entrepreneur of the Year - Manufacturing: Sajjan Jindal, CMD, JSW Steel
- Manager Entrepreneur of the Year: Shikha Sharma, MD & CEO, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance
- Entrepreneur of the Year - Social Entrepreneurship: Ela Ramesh Bhatt, founder & general secretary, SEWA
- Entrepreneur of the Year - Infrastructure & Construction: Atul Punj, CMD, Punj Lloyd
* The last two categories have been introduced this year.