Azim Premji, Chairman of Wipro Ltd, was awarded the US-India Business Council's (USIBC) 34th Anniversary "Global Vision"Award for his work furthering India-US relations through commercial partnership on June 17th, 2009. The Award was presented by retired president and CEO of GE India Scott Bayman, USIBC President Ron Somers and PepsiCo Chairman & CEO Indra K. Nooyi on behalf of the USIBC. "Despite all his success and recognition, he is the same person I met in 1993 – humble, passionate and committed to quality – a very, very good guy," Scott Bayman, Retired President and CEO of GE India, said of Premji USIBC will make a donation to Operation Smile, a children's charity treating facial deformities, in the name of Premji. This donation will allow 14 children to receive life-changing surgery during Operation Smile's August 2009 medical mission to Gujarat.

Premji's success story is a source of inspiration to a number of budding entrepreneurs. Born on July 24, 1945, Premji was studying Electrical Engineering from Stanford University, USA when he returned home to handle the family business following the sudden death of his father. He took over the reins of family business in 1966 at the age of 21. He started off in Wipro with a simple vision – to build an organization on a foundation of values.

Under his leadership, the fledgling $2- million hydrogenated cooking fat company has grown to a $1.76 billion IT services organization serving customers across the globe. Business Week ranked Wipro among the top 100 technology companies globally. In the past two years Wipro has also become the largest BPO services provider, based in India.

Premji has asked the Indian IT industry to get ready to face the global competition, and not fall into a mind trap of 'India Advantage.' "We have talked a lot about India advantage. That makes me extremely worried. It's a huge amount of thumping on the back (by Indian IT industry)," Premji said at the 5th India Innovation Summit 2009, organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry.

His secret to success has been, "In our way of working, we attach a great deal of importance to humility and honesty; with respect for human values, we promise to serve our customers with integrity."

When Premji occupied the hot seat, Wipro dealt in hydrogenated cooking fats and later diversified to bakery fats, ethnic ingredient based toiletries, hair care soaps, baby toiletries, lighting products and hydraulic cylinders. Thereafter Premji made a focused shift from soaps to software. Under his leadership Wipro has metamorphosed from a Rs.70 million company in hydrogenated cooking fats to a pioneer in providing integrated business, technology and process solutions on a global delivery platform. Today, Wipro Technologies is the largest independent R&D service provider in the world.

Azim Premji has several achievements to his credit. In 2000, Asiaweek magazine, voted Premji among the 20 most powerful men in the world. He was among the 50 richest people in the world from 2001 to 2003 listed by Forbes. Times magazine rated him among the 100 most influential people in the world in April 2004. In 2005, Premji was awarded India's highest award – the Padma Bhushan.