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Shiv Nadar
Status
Born in 1945 (age –). Living in Delhi-NCR, India.
Criminal status: No convictions
Summary
Shiv Nadar founded HCL in 1976 with five colleagues, beginning with calculators and microprocessors before growing it into one of India's largest IT services companies. HCL Technologies today employs over 227,000 professionals across 60 countries and generates approximately USD 14.7 billion in annual revenue.
Nadar served as Managing Director of HCL Technologies until July 2021, when he transitioned to Chairman Emeritus and Strategic Advisor. He had already handed the chairmanship to his daughter Roshni Nadar Malhotra in July 2020. In March 2025, he gifted 47 percent of his stake in HCL Corp and Vama Delhi to Roshni, completing a decade-long succession plan.
Business Relationships
Nadar cofounded HCL in 1976 alongside five colleagues including Arjun Malhotra, Ajai Chowdhry, S. Raju, Subhash Arora, and Yogesh Vaidya. Most of the original cofounders have since departed; Nadar remained the controlling figure until transitioning to an advisory role in 2021.
Ownership
Nadar's wealth is concentrated in HCL Technologies, in which his family holds a controlling stake through HCL Corp and the holding company Vama Delhi. In March 2025, he transferred 47 percent of his stake in those entities to his daughter Roshni Nadar Malhotra, who now holds the majority and chairs the HCL Group's flagship listed company. Nadar retains a significant minority stake and serves as Chairman Emeritus with a continuing strategic advisory role on the HCL Technologies board.
Family & Heirs
Nadar's wife, Kiran Nadar, is an art collector and chairperson of the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, India's first private philanthropic museum. His daughter, Roshni Nadar Malhotra, became Chairperson of HCL Technologies in July 2020 and holds the majority interest in the family's HCL-linked holding companies following the March 2025 share transfer. She is married to Shikhar Malhotra, who serves as Pro-Chancellor of Shiv Nadar University.
Evidence
2010-11-18 - 😇 - Shiv Nadar Foundation opens second free VidyaGyan boarding school in Sitapur for rural UP students
2011-06-22 - 😇 - Forbes: Shiv Nadar's VidyaGyan gives free world-class education to rural poor children from UP villages
2020-10-08 - 😈 - NLRB issues complaint against HCL America for union-busting, refusal to bargain, offshoring retaliation against workers
2021-06-22 - 😈 - NLRB amends HCL complaint: company illegally froze wages in 2020 and offshored Pittsburgh jobs to Poland to retaliate against union
2021-10-28 - 😇 - EdelGive Hurun India Philanthropy List 2021: Shiv Nadar donates Rs 1,263 crore in FY2021, ranked 2nd in India
2021-12-14 - 😇 - Shiv Nadar Foundation gifts USD 7 million to MIT EECS to support women scientists and undergraduate research
2022-08-05 - 😇 - India's Ministry of Education designates Shiv Nadar University as Institution of Eminence, the country's youngest university to receive the title
2022-10-20 - 😇 - EdelGive Hurun India Philanthropy List 2022: Shiv Nadar reclaims India's Most Generous title with Rs 1,161 crore in donations
2023-11-02 - 😇 - EdelGive Hurun India Philanthropy List 2023: Shiv Nadar tops with Rs 2,042 crore in donations, up 76 percent from prior year
2024-11-08 - 😇 - EdelGive Hurun India Philanthropy List 2024: Shiv Nadar tops for third time in five years with Rs 2,153 crore in donations
2025-11-06 - 😇 - EdelGive Hurun India Philanthropy List 2025: Shiv Nadar and family retain top spot with Rs 2,708 crore in donations, up 26 percent
2026-05-14 - 😇 - Time100 Philanthropy 2026: Shiv Nadar recognized for USD 1.7 billion total giving, India's top philanthropist 4 of last 5 years
Analysis
Shiv Nadar's record is dominated by one of the most substantial sustained philanthropic programs among any billionaire in Asia. Through the Shiv Nadar Foundation, he has committed over USD 1.7 billion to education and culture, building a university, multiple residential boarding schools that select gifted children from India's poorest rural communities, and a national art museum. His VidyaGyan schools have educated over 2,000 children of farmers and laborers free of charge since 2009, with graduates now enrolling at universities in India and abroad.
The negative mark on his record centers on HCL America's conduct toward workers in Pittsburgh during 2020 and 2021. While Nadar was still Managing Director, HCL America ran an anti-union campaign against employees who had voted for union representation, refused to bargain in good faith, froze wages, and moved contracted work to Poland in what the NLRB characterized as unlawful retaliation. Workers ultimately ratified a first contract in late 2021 after the NLRB intervened.
Questions
The HCL America NLRB case raises a question: how representative is that subsidiary's conduct of broader labor practices across HCL's global workforce, which spans 227,000 employees in 60 countries? The documented case involved one specific US site and may not reflect company-wide policy, but it shows willingness to use legal and operational pressure against workers exercising collective rights.
Nadar's philanthropy is primarily channeled through education in India, with the stated goal of creating social mobility for underprivileged students. Whether the scale and design of these programs reflects a genuine commitment to equity or primarily legacy-building is a question readers can weigh themselves.
Redemption Arc
Nadar's philanthropic trajectory has been consistently upward — donations have grown from Rs 1,161 crore in FY2022 to Rs 2,708 crore in FY2025. His recognition on the Time100 Philanthropy 2026 list reflects an internationally recognized commitment that has been sustained and increased over more than a decade. The institutional model he has built — universities, schools, and museums with transparent governance and published financials — is designed to outlast him, suggesting a durable positive impact regardless of any personal transition.