John Shaw, husband of Biocon's Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, passes away

John Shaw, the husband of Biocon founder and executive chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, passed away on Monday (October 24).

Shaw was vice chairman and non-executive director of Biocon, and was a member of the board of directors since 1999, according to the company’s website.

Also read: Bengaluru floods: What Biocon’s Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw suggests

Born in 1949, he was a foreign promoter and on the advisory board of various Biocon group companies, former chairman of Madura Coats Ltd, former finance and managing director of Coats Viyella Group.

Shaw was an alumnus of the University of Glasgow, where he completed his M.A. (Hons.) in History and Political Economy in 1970. He was given an honorary doctrate by the University of Glasgow. He was educated at Glasgow High School.

“As Vice-Chairman and a key member of the management team, he contributed majorly to the transformation of Biocon from a small enzymes company to a globally recognized biopharmaceutical company,” the company said.

Also read: Biocon sells 5.4 pc stake in arm Syngene International

“In his 22 years at Biocon, he played an important role in building Biocon, ensuring the highest levels of corporate governance in the Company, as well as, contributing to the financial and strategic development of the Group,” it added.

He also worked for over 30 years with Coats Viyella Plc, serving in financial and general management positions in Latin America, Africa and Europe. He was Chairman of Madura Coats Ltd from 1991-98.

On March 29, 2022, the University of Glasgow honoured Shaw and Kiran by naming the University’s new research centre after them.

Shaw, along with his wife Kiran had gifted $7.5 million to the university in July 2019. Their donation has been used to set up this new research hub within the University campus and to create a Professorial Chair, the Mazumdar-Shaw Chair of Molecular Pathology.