2010 Honorary Degree
Habil Khorakiwala
Doctor of Pharmacy
Habil Khorakiwala has distinguished himself as a pharmaceutical scientist and entrepreneur who has paved the way to health care for the people of India.
In the early 1960s, Khorakiwala founded Wockhardt Limited, a small Mumbai, India, firm with 20 employees making over-the-counter medications. Today Wockhardt Limited is a global pharmaceutical and biotechnology company with more than 7,000 employees and 12 manufacturing plants dotting the globe. Wockhardt Limited was selected in 2008 for inclusion in the latest edition of Superbrands India.
Khorakiwala's company was the first Indian company to market a recombinant protein for medical therapy. His visionary leadership also led Wockhardt into biotechnology and biopharmaceutical products.
The impact of Khorakiwala's humanitarian efforts is as notable as his research discovery and business strategies. As a result of Wockhardt's success, Khorakiwala was able to devote generous resources to societal causes in India.
The Wockhardt Foundation is a nonprofit organization set up by Wockhardt Group to aid the poor, weak, and needy by offering healthy living programs and health-care services. The foundation partnered with Harvard Medical International (HMI) in 2002 to form a nonprofit organization called WHARF, which has trained more than 4,000 health-care providers in the prevention and management of AIDS in high-risk communities.
At Wockhardt hospitals, community members are being educated with an emphasis on prevention. Programs include free lectures by doctors on health topics and check-up camps for the public. At the Wockhardt Hospital and Heart Institute, patients can receive free care, and as an inpatient, even maintain contact with friends and family virtually. When an earthquake hit India in 2001, Khorakiwala's company and its employees adopted a village and rebuilt the community's facilities. Wockhardt also provided medicines and fiscal support to the victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
Khorakiwala's work ethic, professional achievements, and commitment to humanity have not gone unnoticed. Among his accolades are three lifetime achievement awards, a distinguished alumnus award from Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Purdue, a Young Entrepreneur of the Year award in the field of health care and life sciences, and an award for Excellence as Top CEO from the Institute of Marketing and Management, New Delhi. He was also recognized with the Shiromani Vikas Award for "outstanding and inspiring contributions toward national development," which was presented to him by Mother Teresa in 1992.
A native of Palanpur, Gurajat, India, Khorakiwala received his bachelor's degree in pharmacy from L.M. College of Pharmacy in Ahmedabad. He earned his master's degree in pharmaceutical science from Purdue in 1966, and he also is an alumnus of Harvard Business School.
Khorakiwala and his wife, Nafisa, reside in Mumbai, India, and have three children - Huzaifa, Murtaza, and Zahabiya - and three grandsons.
