A leading authority in the global IT sector, Krishnakumar Natarajan co-founded Mindtree in 1999 and has played key roles in building the company’s innovative approach to delivering IT services and solutions to global 1000 enterprises. Natarajan was instrumental in setting up Mindtree’s U.S. operations, driving expansion in Europe and Asia Pacific regions, and transforming Mindtree’s IT services business. Today, his mission as CEO is to lead an expertise-led organization as a standard-bearer of the new-wave of technology solution providers. As CEO and Managing Director, Natarajan is actively engaged in ensuring a high quality of governance. He’s involved in recruiting and bringing diversity to the Mindtree board, resulting in a highly valuable group of independent directors. Natarajan’s efforts as a business leader have been recognized worldwide. He was ranked 28th of the 50 highest-rated CEOs by Glassdoor in 2013. He won Bloomberg UTV’s award as the CEO of the Year in 2010 and was recognized by Chief Executive Magazine’s as one of the twelve global leaders of tomorrow. In 2015, he has been named among the Top 100 CEOs in India in an annual study conducted by Business Today – PwC. A 35-year IT industry veteran, Natarajan held several key positions at Wipro before co-founding Mindtree. During this time, he launched and grew the ecommerce division of Wipro, served as Group Vice President of human resources, and was Chief Marketing Officer for Wipro’s IT business. In 2013, Natarajan served as Chairman of the National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), where he worked to strengthen the Indian IT industry to be a globally competitive ecosystem comprised of both established and emerging companies. Natarajan is an active member of the Manufacturer’s Association for Information Technology (MAIT) and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). He’s also a regular speaker at international IT industry conferences and a faculty member at management schools around the world. He has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the College of Engineering, Chennai, India, and a master’s degree in Business Administration from the Xavier Institute, Jamshedpur, India.