Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

About Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw (born 23 March 1953, Bengaluru) is an Indian entrepreneur and the founder of Biocon, the company that effectively created India's biotechnology industry. She studied zoology at Bangalore University, graduating in 1973, and then trained as a brewmaster at Ballarat College in Melbourne, Australia — following her father, who was a brewmaster with United Breweries. Unable to find a brewing role in India at the time, she took a different route: in 1978, aged 25, she founded Biocon in a garage in Bengaluru with a small amount of starting capital, initially producing industrial enzymes. Over nearly five decades she rebuilt that enzyme business into a global biopharmaceutical group focused on affordable medicine — insulins, biosimilars and generics — and today serves as Executive Chairperson of both Biocon Limited and Biocon Biologics. In December 2025 Biocon announced it would acquire the remaining stake in Biocon Biologics, a transaction that valued the biosimilars arm at about $5.5 billion. She is India's only self-made woman billionaire, with a net worth estimated at roughly $3.4–3.8 billion (Forbes, 2026). She has been on Forbes' list of the World's Most Powerful Women since 2011 and was named in TIME's 100 most influential people. Her honours include the Padma Shri (1989), the Padma Bhushan (2005) and the Othmer Gold Medal (2014). In May 2026 she received an honorary doctorate in Applied Life Sciences from the Keck Graduate Institute in California, recognising her work on making healthcare more affordable and accessible. Biocon is headquartered at 20th KM, Hosur Road, Electronic City, Bengaluru 560100, Karnataka. Photo: Sofia Negron / Science History Institute, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Basic Information

Founder & Executive Chairperson, Biocon Limited and Biocon Biologics

Company Details

Biocon Limited

Biotechnology & Biopharmaceuticals

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