Habil Khorakiwala

Habil Khorakiwala is an Indian pharmaceutical businessman, founder and chairman of Wockhardt, which he built from a 20-employee maker of over-the-counter drugs into one of India's leading makers of generic drugs, formulations, biopharmaceuticals, vaccines and active pharmaceutical ingredients, with a chain of super-speciality hospitals. He was appointed chancellor of Jamia Hamdard University in December 2014 and has served as Sweden's honorary consul general in Mumbai. ¹

Khorakiwala was born in 1942 in Bombay into a Dawoodi Bohra family. His father, Fakhruddin T. Khorakiwala, founded Akbarallys, India's first department store, and served as Sheriff of Mumbai. ^{1 2} He graduated in pharmacy from L.M. College, Ahmedabad, took a master's degree in pharmaceutical science from Purdue University, and completed an Advanced Management Programme at Harvard Business School. ¹ His memoir Odyssey of Courage recounts the family's experience of the December 1992 Bombay riots, when, as The Hindu BusinessLine's review puts it, his family was protected by their Hindu neighbours. ³ He has three children, who handle different divisions of Wockhardt. ¹

In 1967 Khorakiwala took over his father's Worli Chemical Works and founded Wockhardt, starting with about 20 employees making over-the-counter drugs. ¹ He grew it into a multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology firm with manufacturing facilities around the world and more than 7,000 employees, spanning formulations, biopharmaceuticals, nutrition products, vaccines, APIs and hospitals. ¹ Purdue University awarded him an honorary Doctor of Pharmacy degree in 2010, and his honours include the Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in healthcare and life sciences and the Shiromani Vikas Award. ¹

• ¹
• ⁴
• ⁵
• ²
• ³