Kris Gopalakrishnan
Senapathy "Kris" Gopalakrishnan is the Chairman of Axilor Ventures, an accelerator that helps start-ups during the early stage of their business journey.  Kris served as the vice chairman of Infosys from 2011 to 2014 and the chief executive officer and managing director of Infosys from 2007 to 2011. Kris is one of the co-founders of Infosys.  Recognized as a global business and technology thought leader, he was voted the top CEO (IT Services category) in Institutional Investor's inaugural ranking of Asia's Top Executives and selected as one of the winners of the second Asian Corporate Director Recognition Awards by Corporate Governance Asia in 2011. He was elected president of India's apex industry chamber Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) for 2013-14 and served as one of the co-chairs of the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2014.

In January 2011, the Government of India awarded Mr. Gopalakrishnan the Padma Bhushan, the country's third-highest civilian honour. 

Mr. Gopalakrishnan serves on the Board of Governors of Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST), is the Chairman, The Council, IISc Bangalore, and is the Chairman, Board of Governors of IIIT, Bangalore. He is the Chairman of the Vision Group on Information Technology of Karnataka Government, the Chairman of RBIH (Reserve Bank of India Innovation Hub) and the Chairman of CII Centre of Excellence in Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Start-ups (CIES).

Mr. Gopalakrishnan is the chairman of Itihaasa Research and Digital which publishes history of Indian IT industry as “itihaasa” (http://www.itihaasa.com/) microsite as well as reports on industrial and academic research in India. He is the Co-author of “Against All Odds – The IT Story of India”.

Mr. Gopalakrishnan invests in promoting research on Brain sciences, aging related disorders as well as investing in start-ups and start-up ecosystem. His family philanthropy is Pratiksha Trust and investment arm is Pratithi. 

Mr. Gopalakrishnan holds master’s degrees in physics and computer science from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. Kris is a Fellow of Indian National Academy of Engineers (INAE) and an Honorary Fellow of Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (IETE) of India.

Early days 
Kris Gopalakrishnan was born in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala on 5 April 1955. He studied at the Government Model Boys Higher Secondary School.

Kris Gopalakrishnan obtained an MSc (physics) in 1977 and MTech (computer science) in 1979, both from IIT, Madras. He started his career as a software engineer with Patni Computer Systems, Mumbai, in 1979.

Positions
Kris Gopalakrishnan has served in leadership roles in several research/educational and industry / startup institutions and forums.

Positions in Research / Educational institutions and bodies

1)    Chairing the governing board of India's INR 3,660 crore National Mission on Cyber-Physical System Technologies

2)    Board of Governors of Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology

3)    Chairman, Board of Governors of IIIT, Bangalore

4)    Member of DBT/Wellcome Trust India Alliance's Strategic Advisory Council

5)    Nanyang Professor of the Practice at NTU, Singapore from 1 June 2018

6)    Trustee of the Infosys Science Foundation

Positions in Industry / Government institutions and bodies

7)    Chairman of Vision Group on IT for Government of Karnataka

8)    President of CII (2013–14)

9)    Co-chair of the World Economic Forum in Davos (2014)

10)  Member of the United Nations Global Compact Board (2012–15)

11)  Chairperson of India's committee on Non-Personal Data Governance

12)  The first Chairperson of the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub

13)  Chairman of CII Centre of Excellence for Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Start-ups and former chairman of CII Start-up Council

Awards and honours
1)    In 2011, Government of India awarded him with Padma Bhushan which is India's third highest civilian honour

2)    Fellow of Indian National Academy of Engineers

3)    Honorary Fellow of Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers of India

4)    Conferred with an honorary doctorate by University of Kerala in 2019

5)    Top CEO by Institutional Investor (2011)

6)    Thinkers 50 (2009)

7)    Distinguished Alumnus Award, IIT Madras (1998)

8)    Member of ACM, IEEE and IEEE Computer Society

Philanthropy - Support for Research and Entrepreneurship in India 
Kris is supporting and guiding several world-class India focused initiatives, through his leadership roles in various Government committees / bodies and philanthropic initiatives, in the following areas:

1.         Brain Science and Computer Science

Kris has contributed Rs. 225 crores (approximately US$40 million) to develop a Centre for Brain Research at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore. He is the donor of the largest philanthropic gift ever received by the 105-year-old institute from an individual. He has contributed an additional Rs. 60 crores (approximately US$10 million) to set up distinguished visiting chairs in Neurocomputing and Data Science at the Indian Institute of Science of Bengaluru and Indian Institute of Technology Madras of Chennai.

Kris is chairing the governing board of India's INR 3,660 crore National Mission on Cyber-Physical System Technologies which is overseeing the establishment of 25 hubs related to CPS and allied technologies.

2.         Healthcare

Kris has furthered Ageing research in India through the Srinivasapura Aging Neuro Senescence and Cognition Study, and GenomeIndia, a pan-India initiative focused on Whole Genome Sequencing of 10,000 individuals from representative populations across India. He is also supporting the Accelerator Program for Discovery in Brain Disorders using Stem Cells at the National Centre for Biological Sciences in Bangalore, Karnataka.

He is on the Board of Swasth Digital Health Foundation, a not-for-profit consortium charting an innovative healthcare model in India.

3.         Nurturing the Indian research and innovation ecosystem

Kris instituted the Gopalakrishnan – NTU Presidential Postdoctoral Fellowships, focused on Industry 4.0, Smart Cities.

He supports young researchers in India through the Pratiksha Trust Young Investigators Award at IISc, Pratiksha Trust Scholarship and travel grants for Winter Schools on Quantitative Systems Biology at ICTS, and the Young Faculty Recognition Award and Travel Grants at IIT Madras.

Kris established the Gopalakrishnan – Deshpande Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at IIT Madras in August 2017, to be able to solve India's society's problems by applying the full capabilities of the scientific and technological knowledge of Indian academic institutions through world class innovation and entrepreneurship.

4.         Creating social impact and rediscovering Indian science / technology

Kris supports the nurturing of livelihoods of farmers through programs like the Naandi Foundation and Centre for Collective Development.

He has supported several interesting history projects – such as the 'History of Indian IT' through itihaasa.com and a research project on 'History of Mathematics in India' at IIT Gandhinagar.

References

Tamil billionaires
Living people
1956 births
Businesspeople from Thiruvananthapuram
Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in trade and industry
IIT Madras alumni
Infosys people
Indian computer scientists
20th-century Indian physicists
Scientists from Kerala
Recipients of the Rajyotsava Award 2010