Philanthropists of 2010 (Part 4/4)

Vineet Nayyar
Managing Director of Tech Mahindra
Month : March 2010
Giving : Rs. 30 crore
Area : Education
Organization: Essel Social Welfare Foundation

IT services firm Tech Mahindra Managing Director Vineet Nayyar has donated a third of his shares in the company, converted from employee stock option plan (ESOP, worth over Rs. 30 crore, to a Delhi-based charitable organization, the Essel Social Welfare Foundation, run by his wife. Vineet is also the Vice Chairman, Managing Director & CEO of Tech Mahindra and the Chairman of Mahindra Satyam.

Essel Social Welfare Foundation, an umbrella organization to many other NGOs, supports education of underprivileged children, including the girl child and the visually handicapped. It is run by Reva Nayyar, a retired bureaucrat who has in the recent past been involved with ministry of woman and child development and has been instrumental in enactment of policies and legislation pertaining to women and child welfare.

Vineet Nayyar has been associated with the organization for the past few years. This donation is on of the largest even by the standards set by bigger companies in the country.

Vineet Nayar
CEO & Vice chairman of HCL Technologies
Giving : Rs. 43 crore
Area : Education
Organization: SAMPARK

HCL Technologies CEO Vineet Nayar turn, who has divested a part of his stake this week in the company for charity purposes. HCL Technologies vice chairman, and director Vineet Nayar sold a million shares in HCL Technologies worth Rs 43 crore, in a bid to raise money for his charity SAMPARK, which works towards children’s education in India.

In 2004, he started a non-profit called Sampark which has an aim to create a million smiles. SAMPARK, run as a personal non-profit venture by Mr Nayar, has generally kept a low profile. Mr Nayar joined HCL in 1985 as a trainee after his MBA from XLRI. Mr Nayar, 47, is now one of the highest paid CEOs in India with a salary of over Rs 4.5 crore per year.

The charity is working with ill equipped schools in India to improve the quality of education through Teach the Teacher program. It is also investing in basic infrastructure and creating science labs in schools. SAMPARK also funds engineering education for students from these schools by providing scholarship to meritorious students.

“I have no doubt that over time, we can create a million smiles through improving the quality , infrastructure and opportunity for education for the underprivileged,” said Mr Nayar

Over the last 4 posts, we have profiled 8 leading lights of Corporate India who have given significant amounts of money to charity. We hoped you like this series and we would love to hear your thoughts about the same. If you would like us to include some more people on this list and profile them, do let us know.