Founder And Chancellor

Founder & Chairman – HCL
Founder & Chairman - Shiv Nadar Foundation

Shiv Nadar is the Founder and Chancellor of the Shiv Nadar University. He founded the University in 2011 with a vision to create a world renowned institution for multidisciplinary education, embedded in innovation and research.

Nadar is the Founder and Chairman of HCL Enterprise, an $8.1 billion global organization with over 127,000 professionals operating from 43 countries. Nadar is credited with being one of the pioneers of the computing and IT industry in India. Under his guidance HCL has continued to ride the waves of the changing IT landscape for over 40 years and remain at the forefront of every technological revolution since 1976. While HCL started off as a hardware organization, manufacturing the country’s first indigenous computers and introducing them to the Indian consumer, it eventually evolved into a more comprehensive software services organization. HCL is in fact one of the few global IT companies founded in the 1970s that remains in existence till date.

Throughout his career, Nadar always acknowledged that successful institution building is dependent on forging result-oriented partnerships and creating new knowledge. He steered HCL to create several valuable joint ventures and alliances that aided the organization’s emergence as a global technology enterprise. His pioneering spirit and belief in engineering and research shaped the course of the organization and is the reason that today HCL Technologies, one of the group companies, boasts one of the largest IT Engineering and R&D divisions in the world.

Nadar started his career as part of the elite DCM management trainee system. It was at DCM that he met the people with whom he later started HCL in a Delhi Barsati “akin to a garage startup” with a compelling vision that the microprocessor would change the world.

Nadar credits his success to the education and scholarships that he received during his early years. He has always maintained that access to quality education is the most potent tool of transformation and therefore, in 1994, he established the philanthropic - Shiv Nadar Foundation. The Foundation draws heavily on Nadar’s experience of building a world-class organization like HCL. It endeavors to create institutions of transformational education that will continue to influence and nurture the country’s youth for decades to come. To this effect, the Shiv Nadar Foundation has established six institutions covering the entire spectrum of education, which aim to address the issue of quality in education, create lasting partnerships and have a strong research orientation.

As of 2018, Nadar has invested close to US$ 800 million through the Foundation, impacting over 25,000 students directly. However, the Foundation’s ultimate aim is to nurture the next generation of leaders in the ideologies of symbiotic growth so that each of them may in turn aspire to affect a small change, creating a large multiplier effect. The impact of the Shiv Nadar Foundation institutions is today reflected in the aspirations of meritorious students who started their journeys from humble, geographically, remote backgrounds but are today pursuing their dreams in India as well as other countries.

In recognition of his pioneering role in business and philanthropy in India and across the globe, Nadar has received several honours and accolades, notable being the Padma Bhushan from the President of India in 2008.

Nadar is married to Kiran, an Asian Games medalist and internationally renowned bridge player. She is also one of the largest Indian Art collectors in the world.

KNOWLEDGE IS THE PATH TO FREEDOM

Vision

To empower individuals and communities to realize and exercise universal freedom through acquisition and application of knowledge by:

Dedicating to the development, organization, preservation, dissemination, and application of knowledge in a wide range of fields of study.
Committing to excellence in teaching, discovery & innovation, scholarship, and service to expand the scope of human understanding, and contributing to the betterment of the world.
 Pledging to serve the higher education needs of State of Uttar Pradesh, India, and the global community.

Mission & Objective

A comprehensive, multidisciplinary, research-focused, and student-centric university aimed at becoming a leading international institution of higher learning by:

Developing and educating the path-shapers of tomorrow, who can shoulder the challenges of globally responsible, and ethical leadership in the 21st Century.
Supporting research, scholarly, and creative endeavors that contribute to the creation of new knowledge at the frontiers of specialized areas as well as at the interface of diverse disciplines.
Evolving research and teaching programs that tackle the most pressing problems of the State of Uttar Pradesh, India, and the global community.

Values & Principles

Research, scholarship, and creative activity as fundamental sources of new knowledge, contributions to the betterment of society and expressions of the human spirit.
Pursuit of academic excellence with integrity in an environment of collaboration, collegiality, and civility. 
Freedom of inquiry and creation of an intellectual environment conducive to free, open, and respectful exchange of ideas.
Recognition and respect for the diversity of people and ideas, a rational spirit of inclusiveness, a global perspective, and a sense of community as essential conditions for campus life.
Environmental consciousness, sustainability, and prudent management of natural resources as central tenets of the construction and operation of the university.
Commitment to social justice and public service as the foundation of individual, educational, social, and economic development.
Engaged teaching and learning based on dialogue, student involvement, and experiential learning.
Responsible stewardship and thoughtful reflection, collaboration, planning, and evaluation as essential for meeting the changing needs of India and the global community.
Cultivation of character and the modeling of honesty, integrity, compassion, fairness, respect, and ethical behavior, both in the classroom and beyond.