Rising Son

Like dad, like son: he is known for his simplicity and his love to remain low key. 

A diligent professional, he is now at the helm of India’s third-largest information technology (IT) Services Company.

Childhood and Education

Rishad Premji, the elder of Wipro Chairman Azim Premji’s two sons,studied at the Harvard Busines School. He also has a BA in Economics from Wesleyan University in the US.

He has also spent a year at the London School of Economics where he was part of the General Course Program.

Career

Rishad started off with Bain & Company in London, working on assignments across Consumer Products, Automobiles, Telecom and Insurance. He also worked with GE Capital in the US across several businesses throughout the Insurance and Consumer Lending space and is a graduate of GE’s Financial Management Program (FMP).

Then he joined  Wipro in 2007 and has been instrumental in shaping Wipro’s strategy and aligning it with the future business landscape.

He championed Wipro’s entry into the Origination and Loan Servicing space as an end to end provider of Mortgage solutions. This led to the acquisition of Gallagher Financial Systems (now called Wipro Gallagher Solutions).

In the BFSI space, Rishad also spearheaded the integration of Citi Technology Services following Wipro’s acquisition of the Citibank captive in the application and infrastructure space.

As Head of Investor Relations and Corporate Affairs, he has helped significantly scale up the systems, processes, and interactions with both internal and external stakeholders. Recently, he conceptualized Wipro Ventures – a $100M fund to invest in start-ups developing technologies and solutions that will complement Wipro’s businesses through next generation solutions and products.

Rishad is on the Board of Wipro Enterprises Limited, a leading player in the FMCG & Infrastructure Engineering space with sales of ~$1B.

He is also on the board of Wipro-GE, a joint venture between Wipro and General Electric in the healthcare domain and on the board of the Azim Premji Foundation.

The foundation is one of the largest not-for-profit initiatives in India focused on improving school education working with over 350,000 schools across the country.

Interests

Rishad reads quite a lot and during his spare time reads quite a lot of books, mostly relating to management.

Another aspect of Rishad, which is very similar to his father, is his secular nature. Although a Muslim, a visit to the temple is a must for Rishad too.

Achievement

In 2014, he was recognized as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum for his outstanding leadership, professional accomplishments, and commitment to society.

Personal Life

The tall and handsome Rishad got married to his childhood sweetheart Aditi at a very low-key ceremony in Mumbai in 2005. Considering his father’s penchant for remaining low-key, it is learnt that Rishad too was in favour of a low-key wedding. No gala receptions with no celebrity list, the wedding at the Taj Palace, Mumbai, was a very quiet family affair.

Although nothing much is known about Rishad’s tall and attractive wife, it is said that she also belongs to the no-nonsense clan. It is said she would fit the bill of an ideal Wipro bahurani as her non-nonsense attitude will be an asset in the business world.

Rishad, prior to marriage, has had his share of fun too. An ardent party-lover, he was spotted on several occasions at trendy night spots in Bangalore along with Aditi.