Rajendra Pawar is the Chairman and Co-founder of the NIIT group that comprises two businesses-IT Services and Learning Services. NIIT Technologies Limited, a leading Indian IT and BPO organization serves customers in America, Europe, Japan and Asia Pacific. NIIT Limited, Asia's largest IT Learning and Knowledge Management Company, operates in 30 countries and has over 500,000 students on its rolls.

A distinguished alumnus of prestigious Indian tech school, the IIT Delhi, Mr. Pawar is known for promoting industry-academia alliances and has been working closely with the country's well-known educational institutions. He serves on the Board of Governors of IIT Delhi, India's first global business school - The Indian School of Business, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University and The Scindia School. Mr Pawar is on the Board of Management of world's largest distance learning university, Indira Gandhi National Open University.

Actively involved in India's key Chambers of Commerce,
Mr. Pawar has led several ICT industry initiatives, giving voice to the sector's aspirations and goals. He has been a Founder Member and Past President of MAIT (the Manufacturers' Association of Information Technology) and a Founder Member of NASSCOM (the National Association of Software & Service Companies). He is currently a member of the International Business Council of the World Economic Forum. Mr. Pawar has served on the Prime Minister's National Task force, which aims at making India an IT Superpower by 2008. He is also helping the Government of South Africa develop a growth strategy for its ICT industry.

Recognizing his pioneering and entrepreneurial work in the education and software sectors, global Business Intelligence firm, Ernst & Young conferred on Mr. Pawar its prestigious Master Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 1999. His contributions to the IT industry in India have also earned him the IT man of the Year award instituted by IT industry journal, Dataquest.

Mr. Pawar has been working to build NIIT into a "people's company"-an organization implementing Best Practices in the area of HR. His commitment to HR innovation, reflected in the large number of breakthrough policies introduced by the company, have won national acclaim and enabled NIIT to feature among the 25 Great Places to Work in India.

Born in Jammu, Pawar studied at the Scindia School, Gwalior and graduated from the country's prestigious engineering institution, the IIT, Delhi in 1972. At IIT, he pursued the B. Tech programme in electrical engineering and received the Distinguished Alumnus Award of IIT in 1995.