Biocon Founder and Executive Chairperson Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw has chosen her niece Claire Mazumdar to succeed her as the biotech entrepreneur laid out a succession plan for India's leading biotech firm.
Mazumdar-Shaw (73), who has no children, in a post on X, confirmed reports about the succession planning in Biocon and that she has choosen niece Claire as successor.
However, she clarified that the succession is not happening anytime soon.
1 May 2026
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"Not planning to hang up my boots for a while! Claire will gradually transition into my role in time," Mazumdar-Shaw wrote in a post.
Daughter of Mazumdar-Shaw's brother Ravi Mazumdar, 37-year-old Claire Mazumdar founded Boston-based Bicara Therapeutics in 2018 -- a clinical stage cancer therapy company. She led it to a Nasdaq listing in 2024.
Ravi Mazumdar is a non-executive director at Biocon. Claire also sits on the boards of Relay Therapeutics and Noora Health.
A graduate in Biological Engineering from MIT, Claire is also both an MBA and a PhD in cancer biology from Stanford University.
Her parents are both computer science professors in the United States. Her brother Eric is a professor at the California Institute of Technology and an AI expert.
Mazumdar-Shaw, the face of the Indian biotechnology industry, had founded Biocon in 1978 in a garage in Bengaluru with ₹10,000 and built it into India's largest biotechnology company over four decades.
She married Scotsman John Shaw in 1998.
John Shaw, who passed away in 2022 due to cancer, was Vice Chairman and Non-Executive Director of Biocon and was a foreign promoter of the company.
While naming Claire as her successor, Mazumdar-Shaw said that, being the sole promoter of Biocon, she needed to make sure that the company is put in good hands.
On why she saw Claire as her successor, Mazumdar-Shaw said her niece has proved to her that she can run a company.
Built by one woman over four decades, Biocon will be led by another woman as the baton is set to pass from the aunt to the niece.
