Roshni Nadar Malhotra
| Roshni Nadar Malhotra | |
|---|---|
| Born | Roshni Nadar 1981 Delhi, India |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Education | Vasant Valley School Northwestern University (B.S., communication) Kellogg School of Management (M.B.A.) |
| Alma mater | Northwestern University |
| Occupation | Business executive, philanthropist |
| Years active | 2008-present |
| Employer | HCLTech HCL Corporation |
| Title | Chairperson, HCLTech; CEO, HCL Corporation |
| Term | 2020-present (chairperson) |
| Predecessor | Shiv Nadar |
| Known for | Chairperson of HCLTech First woman to lead a listed Indian IT company India's wealthiest woman |
| Net worth | ₹2.84 lakh crore (2025) |
| Spouse | Shikhar Malhotra (m. 2010) |
| Children | 2 |
| Parents | Shiv Nadar Kiran Nadar |
Roshni Nadar Malhotra (born 1981) is an Indian business executive and philanthropist who serves as chairperson of HCLTech and chief executive officer of HCL Corporation, the holding company of the HCL Group. She became chairperson in July 2020, succeeding her father Shiv Nadar, and in doing so became the first woman to lead a listed Indian information technology company.
She is the only child of Shiv Nadar, who founded HCL in 1976, and the art collector and philanthropist Kiran Nadar. In March 2025 her father transferred 47 percent of his holdings in the group's promoter entities to her, making her the largest shareholder in HCLTech and HCL Infosystems. Following the transfer she was ranked third on the M3M Hurun India Rich List 2025 with wealth of ₹2.84 lakh crore, the first woman to enter the top three of that ranking and the wealthiest woman in India.[1]
She was ranked 54th on the Forbes list of the World's 100 Most Powerful Women in 2019 and 60th in 2023 and 2024.[2]
Early life and education
Roshni Nadar was born in 1981 in Delhi to Shiv Nadar and Kiran Nadar. Her father had co-founded Hindustan Computers Limited, later HCL, in 1976, building it from a small venture assembling calculators and microcomputers into one of India's largest technology groups. Her mother is a contract bridge player and the founder of the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, one of the first private museums of modern and contemporary art in India.
She grew up in Delhi and was educated at Vasant Valley School.
She then went to the United States to study at Northwestern University, where she took a bachelor's degree in communication with a concentration in radio, television and film. She subsequently earned a Master of Business Administration from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern, with a focus on social enterprise and strategy.
The choice of communication rather than engineering or computer science distinguished her from most senior figures in the Indian IT industry, and she has described the media background as shaping her approach to organisational communication and brand.
Career
Early career
Before joining the family business, Nadar Malhotra worked as a news producer in the media industry, including at Sky News in the United Kingdom and at CNN America. The period abroad was undertaken deliberately outside the family business, and she has described it as an attempt to establish an independent professional footing before returning to India.
HCL Corporation
She joined HCL Corporation in 2009 and, within a year, was appointed executive director and chief executive officer at the age of 27. HCL Corporation is the privately held entity that holds the family's interests in the group's operating companies. In that role she has been responsible for capital allocation across the group and for its strategic direction, including its investments outside the core IT services business.
The appointment at that age, to the entity controlling one of India's largest technology groups, attracted attention and some scepticism, and she has been open about the questions it raised regarding succession in family-controlled businesses.
Chairperson of HCLTech
In July 2020 Shiv Nadar stepped down as chairman of HCL Technologies, later renamed HCLTech, and Roshni Nadar Malhotra was appointed chairperson.[3] The appointment made her the first woman to chair a listed Indian information technology company, in an industry whose senior leadership had been almost entirely male.
HCLTech is among the largest Indian IT services companies, alongside Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys and Wipro, with operations in more than fifty countries and a workforce exceeding 200,000. Its business spans IT and business services, engineering and research and development services, and software products, the last through the HCLSoftware division built substantially from products acquired from IBM in a $1.8 billion transaction completed in 2019.
As chairperson she has overseen the company through the post-pandemic demand cycle in IT services, the integration of the acquired software portfolio, and the industry's shift toward artificial intelligence services. The governance arrangement is one in which the chairperson sets strategy and represents the promoter interest while a separate chief executive runs day-to-day operations, a structure common in Indian family-controlled listed companies. C. Vijayakumar has served as chief executive officer through her chairmanship.
HCLTech's revenue grew from approximately $8 billion at the time of her appointment to about $14.8 billion,[4] and the company's market capitalisation expanded correspondingly. She has directed the group toward what it describes as intellectual property led growth, strengthening the products and platforms business and establishing HCLSoftware as a distinct enterprise software arm rather than treating software as an adjunct to services.
Under her chairmanship the HCLTech board became 50 percent female, among the highest proportions of any large global technology company, and she has made board composition and governance a stated priority.
Succession and shareholding
In March 2025 Shiv Nadar transferred, by gift deed, 47 percent of his holdings in HCL Corporation and Vama Delhi, the two promoter entities through which the family controls the group, to his daughter. On completion the transfer gave her majority control of both entities and made her the largest shareholder in HCLTech and HCL Infosystems.[5]
The transaction was presented as a step in a long-planned succession rather than a change in the operating leadership of the group, and it was one of the largest intergenerational wealth transfers recorded in India.
Philanthropy and other roles
Shiv Nadar Foundation
Nadar Malhotra is a trustee of the Shiv Nadar Foundation, the family's philanthropic vehicle, which concentrates on education. Before becoming chief executive of HCL Corporation she served as a trustee of the foundation, which operates the not-for-profit Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar College of Engineering in Chennai and the Shiv Nadar University in Uttar Pradesh.
She is chairperson of VidyaGyan, a leadership academy providing free residential schooling to academically gifted children from economically disadvantaged rural households in Uttar Pradesh. The programme selects students from village families below a defined income threshold and supports them through secondary education and into higher education.
The Shiv Nadar Foundation has been among the largest private philanthropic funders of education in India, and the family has consistently ranked at or near the top of Indian philanthropy lists.
The Habitats Trust
In 2018 Nadar Malhotra established The Habitats Trust with her husband Shikhar Malhotra, which works to protect India's natural habitats and indigenous species and to support sustainable ecosystems. The trust makes grants to conservation organisations and individual researchers through an annual awards programme, with an emphasis on lesser-known habitats and species that attract limited conservation funding.
She has served on the board of WWF India.
Other appointments
Nadar Malhotra serves as co-conference chair of the St. Gallen Symposium alongside Lord Brian Griffiths and Dominic Barton. The symposium convenes business, academic and public sector leaders with students in Switzerland each year.
Recognition
She has appeared repeatedly on the Forbes list of the World's 100 Most Powerful Women, ranked 54th in 2019 and 60th in 2023 and 2024. She has also featured on Fortune rankings of the most powerful women in business, including its Asia list.
In 2023 she received the Schaffner Award from the Kellogg School of Management in recognition of her contribution to society.[6]
Her appointment as chairperson of HCLTech was widely reported in India as a milestone for women in the technology sector, and she has been cited in discussions of board and executive diversity in Indian listed companies.
Personal life
Nadar Malhotra is a trained classical musician.
In 2010 she married Shikhar Malhotra, vice chairman of HCL Healthcare. They have two sons.
She is an active supporter of wildlife conservation, an interest reflected in the establishment of The Habitats Trust, and has spoken about the influence of her mother's work in the arts on her approach to institution building.
References
- ↑ <ref>"M3M Hurun India Rich List 2025: HCL's Roshni Nadar bags third rank on debut, becomes wealthiest woman".October 1, 2025.Retrieved September 9, 2026.</ref>
- ↑ <ref>"Roshni Nadar Malhotra".Retrieved September 9, 2026.</ref>
- ↑ <ref>"Roshni Nadar Malhotra named chairperson of HCL Technologies".July 17, 2020.</ref>
- ↑ <ref>"HCLTech Leadership".HCLTech.Retrieved September 9, 2026.</ref>
- ↑ <ref>"Roshni Nadar Malhotra third richest Indian after stake 'gift', shows data".March 9, 2025.Retrieved September 9, 2026.</ref>
- ↑ <ref>"HCLTech Chairperson Roshni Nadar Malhotra Honored with Kellogg School of Management's Schaffner Award".Business Wire.Business Wire.May 11, 2023.</ref>