Kiran Mazumdar Shaw Education & Success Story

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, India’s first self-made woman billionaire and the CEO of Biocon, is an inspiration to many. Her company uses scientific talent in India to make breakthroughs in clinical research. But did you know she couldn’t get into medical college because she couldn’t afford it? Did you know she was refused jobs because she was walking on an untrodden path to becoming a brewmaster like her father? Way before she became famous, she was already shaking up traditions by opening her own company in a shed. If you want to know more about this first-generation entrepreneur, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, and her life, this blog is for you!

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Kiran Mazumdar Shaw Personal Life

Kiran Mazumdar was born in Pune, Maharashtra in a Gujarati family on 23rd March 1953. She studied biology and zoology and wanted to go to medical school but could not obtain a scholarship. She faced challenges like discrimination because of her gender, infrastructural, technological, and financial problems, and many more in her business initiative when she started. She initially started by setting up her business in a shed with a retired garage mechanic as her first employee.

Within a year of its inception, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw’s Biocon manufactured enzymes and export them to the U.S. and Europe. It was the first Indian company to do so. From there, she never looked back and spearheaded Biocon’s successful evolution from an industrial enzymes manufacturing company to a fully functional and efficient Bio-Pharmaceutical company with 2 subsidiaries- Syngene and Clingene, which was later merged with Syngene. After marrying her husband John Shaw, the chairperson at Madura Coats, she became Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, and he became the vice-chairman of Biocon.

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw Education

A young Kiran Mazumdar Shaw wanting to follow in her father’s footsteps wanted to become a brewmaster. She enrolled at Melbourne University in Australia and topped her class in which she was the only woman. She came back and tried, but India is an unforgiving place for young women trying to shatter the boundaries and shake up the traditions. She was refused to be given the job of a master brewer in India since it was considered a “man’s job” Leslie Auchincloss, the Biocon Biochemicals Limited founder, Kiran Mazumdar’s joint venture, may have given her an opportunity. Still, her journey is her own, and she has her achievements to prove her resilience. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw has many degrees to her name, and given below is a list of all her accolades-

• BSc. (Zoology Hons.), Bangalore University
• Post-Graduate Diploma, Malting and Brewing, Ballarat Institute of Advanced Education, Melbourne, Australia
• Honorary Doctorates from several prestigious universities, including:
  • Deakin University, Victoria, Australia
  • Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK
  • University of Glasgow, Scotland,
  • UK University of Abertay, Dundee, Scotland, UK
  • Ballarat University, Australia
  • Presidency University, Kolkata, India

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw Professional Life

Kiran Shaw qualifies that she doesn’t have the technical knowledge or experience as a brewer but she always wanted to learn and understand it.

Kiran started her professional career as a trainee brewer at Carlton and United Breweries, Melbourne. She worked at Barrett Brothers and Burston, Australia, as a trainee maltster.

She wanted to be on an equal footing with the male counterparts of her time. There was no one to guide and mentor her. The small steps were taken by Kiran from Australia to Calcutta, India, were unaware of the challenges ahead and the hurdles to overcome them.

Kiran’s achievement in her field is truly remarkable. Her work life has been full of challenges, especially in the world of brewing which is dominated by men.

She joined Jupiter Breweries Limited, Calcutta as a specialized expert. Somewhere in the range of 1975 and 1977, she filled in as a specialized administrator at Standard Maltings Corporation, Baroda. Her story is not just about breaking into a professional arena dominated by men but also about how she stayed in the family business and made it flourish with many a milestone achieved.

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw Board Memberships

She is an individual from the leading group of legislative heads of the Indian School of Business and a term individual from the leading group of MIT, USA till 2023.

She has studied at the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad. She was the primary lady to head the leading group of legislative leaders of the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIMB).

She is an autonomous chief on the leading group of Infosys. She is an individual from the General Body of Maharashtra State Innovation Society. She is additionally an individual from the warning leading group of the MIT Jameel Clinic.

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw Success Story

Kiran met Leslie who is the founding father of Biocon Biochemicals restricted, in Cork, Ireland. The said company produces enzymes to be employed in production, food packaging, and textile industries. the author was urgently trying to find an associate degree enterpriser in Bharat, World Health Organization would facilitate her in establishing an associate degree Indian subsidiary of Biocon.

Kiran was in agreement to undertake the supply on the condition that if she didn’t want to continue past six months, she would tend the position of brewmaster. She started operating as an initiate manager at Biocon restricted, Cork, to be told additional of the business. Post the coaching amount, she came back to Bharat to ascertain the business.

In 1989, Biocon Biochemicals were nonheritable from Leslie author by Unilever. Her husband, John Shaw endowed $2 million to buy the shares of Biocon from ICI. The partnership with Unilever helped Biocon to ascertain best practices and quality systems across the globe. Unilever then sold its chemical division together with Biocon to Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI).

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw Challenges

She started with a seed capital of Rs.10,000. In spite of being a venture, Indian laws restricted foreign possession to solely half-hour of the corporate. Thus, the seventieth of the corporate belonged to Kiran Mazumdar Shaw.

She faced responsibility challenges attributable to her youth, gender, and untested business model. She was unable to secure funding for her company at first. She tried laboriously and at last got her 1st resource. She conjointly struggled while recruiting individuals to figure out her startup. She had to face technological changes with an eye fixed to create a biotech business in an Asian nation, that was then having a poor infrastructure.

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw Founder of Biocon

Kiran, the owner of Biocon, established the Indian subsidiary of Biocon restricted in 1978, in the city. the corporate start extracting enzymes like enzymes and transparent substances. Biocoin Bharat started producing and exporting enzymes to the U.S. and Europe at intervals a year.

She reinvigorated her company to manufacture industrial enzymes and it before long became a pharma. the corporate conjointly researched on the invention of novel enzymes in 1984. Biocon became the primary Indian biotech company to receive funding from the U.S. for proprietary technologies.

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw Recognition

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw has many honors to her name. Her awards and achievements tell us the tale of a hardworking and dedicated woman. She is truly a beacon of hope and inspiration, being the epitome of excellence in her field.

• Recipient of Padma Shri (1989), Padma Bhushan (2005)
• Recipient of EY World Entrepreneur of the Year (2020) and EY Entrepreneur of the Year India Award (2019)
• Recipient of Order of Australia (2020)
• Recipient of ICMR’s Lifetime Achievement Award for Outstanding Achievement in Healthcare (2019)
• Recipient of AWSM Award for Excellence (2017)
• Knight of the National Order of the French Legion of Honour (2016)
• Recipient of Othmer Gold Medal (2014)
• Recipient of Global Economy Prize for Business (2014)

“My legacy is going to be in affordable health care. I am willing to invest in developing that model and the policies around it.”

Kiran Mazumdar Shaw Leadership Style

Hailed as “India’s richest self-made woman” and the Founder of “India’s largest listed biopharmaceutical firm” with a net worth of $4 Billion by Forbes, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw is a force of nature to be reckoned with. She seems to prefer the term “Compassionate Capitalism” to philanthropy and believes that it can provide an ongoing foundation for sustainable social progress with lasting effects if the business is applied properly. Her belief in “Affordable innovation” is the driving philosophy behind Biocon’s work and expansion. This philosophy reflects in her philanthropic initiatives like The Mazumdar Shaw Medical Centre, which aims to create a sustainable, affordable cancer care model, public health campaign like “Queen of Heart”. It educates people about health issues and problems like cardiovascular disease, Arogya Raksha Yojana which is a disease protection program. Her company is also in the process of making a vaccine of covid – 19. Kiran Mazumdar Shaw is also the second Indian after Azim Premji to become part of Bill Gates, the “Giving Pledge Initiative”. And these are only a few of the numerous health and education outreach programs she initiated for the benefit of the weaker sections of Indian society.

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Kiran Mazumdar Shaw is the epitome of a compassionate human being with a determined mind who has worked hard to reach where she is today and is working harder to give back to society and the world. The world will become a better place with more people like her. To read more inspiring stories of women all over the world, check out Leverage Edu. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Quora.