Azim Premji to retire today as Executive Chairman of Wipro

🎥 Jul 30, 2019 📺 Mint ⏱ 3m 👁 2073 views

Azim Premji will be retiring as the Executive Chairman and managing director of Wipro on Tuesday. Azim Premji's son Rishad Premji will take over as the Executive Chairman of the company. Wipro also announced its CEO Abidali Z Neemuchwala as its new managing director. Premji is known for his contribution to the IT industry as well as his philanthropic activities. Premji founded the Azim Premji Foundation in 2000 which train teachers in government schools. Premji will be taking his time for philanthropic activities post retirement.

Watch on YouTube

About Azim Premji

Azim Premji, founder chairman of Wipro and chairman of the Azim Premji Foundation, has been active in philanthropy and public advocacy. In January 2026, he praised the Jharkhand government's Vision 2050 development model, stating it was "heartening to note that the state of Jharkhand is making concerted efforts for the development of the state." He welcomed investors to consider investing in Jharkhand, citing his foundation's favorable experience with the state government. The Azim Premji Foundation is establishing a medical college, hospital, and university in Ranchi. In November 2024, at the CII Annual Business Summit, Premji spoke about the responsibility of businesses, stating that "collectively as businesses there are no limits to our responsibility" and that companies must "go beyond any framework we have set up for ourselves." He also discussed his philanthropic approach, saying he decided to "give away most of my wealth" and that he considers it his duty to contribute to social good. At Wipro's 78th Annual General Meeting in December 2024, Premji noted that the company had a challenging financial year, reporting revenues of $10.8 billion, a decrease of 4.4% year-on-year, with net income of $1.3 billion. He described AI as a "distinct opportunity to reshape industries" and stated that Wipro's goal is to "lead this transformation" through partnerships with companies such as Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and Nvidia. In earlier remarks, Premji has emphasized the importance of integrity, stating that "integrity is fundamental to everything; if there is lack of integrity there's lack of character." He has also expressed regret about not starting his philanthropic foundation earlier, advising others to "start right away" with philanthropy.

Source: AI-verified profile updated from Azim Premji's recent appearances. Browse all interviews →

Transcript (2 segments)

✨ AI-enhanced transcript with speaker attribution

Azim Premji0:24

How we'll be able to do what we did and, you know, I don't think we're really unique in this. There are companies in India who have repeated this, and we are finding now that many other companies in India have built up a scale of ambition which is completely different than the scale of ambition which they had two years back. We have seen this happening in pharmaceuticals, we have seen this happening on a smaller base in biotechnologies, we are seeing this happening in auto series, and recently with a very large acquisition that we have seen it happen in steel. Very interestingly, in the quantum theory, the quantum acquisition which a company in India did. And I think this firing of ambition in terms of the globalization of Indian companies has in part been generated by the success of the software and the IT-enabled services industry. And I figured we set the example, and our fellow businessmen figure that if these fools in software can do it, so can we, which is really the quantum change. And it's a very pleasant quantum change in the scale of ambition of Indian business leaders, particularly over the past two years.

The company has been able to create a successful track record of innovating service delivery models, being among the first to remote deliver R&D, infrastructure outsourcing, testing, and Business Process Outsourcing. I have found that people excel when they are provided a fair, free, and apolitical environment.