BENGALURU: Wipro founder Azim Premji will step down in July from the company he built over five decades into one of the country’s largest technology services firms and devote more of his attention to philanthropic initiatives.The 74-year-old Premji will give up his executive functions as chairman and managing director but remain on the board as director and founder chairman. Eldest son Rishad Premji, already a board member, will take over as chairman, and chief executive officer Abidali Neemuchwala will become managing director as well. The changes will take effect on July 31.“It has been a long and satisfying journey for me,” said Premji, who won ET’sLifetime Achievement Award in 2013. “As I look into the future, I plan to devote more time to focus on our philanthropic activities.”Premji has been one of the most generous donors among India’s industrialists. In March, he pledged 34% of his Wipro shares to Azim Premji Foundation, a philanthropic initiative focussed primarily on education, taking the total commitment to the organisation to 67% of his wealth, or Rs 1.45 lakh crore. The foundation set up the Azim Premji University as a not-for-profit venture in 2010. The Premji family holds a 74% stake in the software exporter.“Wipro was started by my father Hasham Premji. I think where I contributed was to expand the existing product range and diversification,” the normally reticent Premji said in an interaction with students two years ago. “What inspired me was a mission to do better than what we were doing in the past and grow much faster than how we grew in the past.”In 1966, Premji dropped out from college in Stanford at the age of 21to return to India after his father’s death to take over Wipro, originally Western India Vegetable Products Ltd, which had edible oil as its main product and was based in Amalner in Maharashtra.Premji diversified the business and focussed on building a technology venture, both hardware and software. The latter would thrive as the former dwindled. The software services business, which has been seeking to recover lost ground in recent years, generated $8.5 billion in annual revenue last year.Wipro Enterprises, which houses the consumer goods, infrastructure engineering and medical devices businesses, posted revenue of $2 billion.Premji will remain chairman of Wipro Enterprises and continue to chair the board of Wipro-GE Healthcare.“We thank Azim for his vision, outstanding leadership and years of extraordinary contribution towards building Wipro and the Indian IT industry,” said Ashok S Ganguly, independent director and chairman, board governance, nomination and compensation committee, Wipro Ltd. “His unflinching commitment to values makes him an exemplar of how business and ethics, can and must go together. His exceptional generosity makes him one of the greatest philanthropists of our time.”As he built Wipro, Premji like his contemporary NR Narayana Murthy, who cofounded Infosys, was active in raising issues of governance and infrastructure. He also worked with the industry leaders to highlight issues concerning the software and hardware industry.At the same time, people who have worked with Premji swear by his integrity and his passion to build a culture that focusses on giving back to society, like his first hire in the tech business.“All his life, the single mission for (Premji) was making Wipro successful. For him, Wipro was everything,” said Sridhar Mitta, founder and managing director of NextWealth, which promotes social entrepreneurship. “When people had criticised him on retaining 85% stake in Wipro, his answer was: I don’t want somebody coming and hampering growth.”Mitta was formerly chief technology officer at Wipro. The company also offered restricted stock units as incentives to retain employees as the IT industry grew in the country. Premji’s business acumen helped him to generate wealth that he could contribute to philanthropy.“The timing has to be right — he has high ethical values,” said Mitta. “All of us are proud of the association with him. We all became mini Premjis because of that. His impact on the industry is very high.”Premji started focussing on philanthropy in the early 2000s, looking at how technology could improve the quality of education in the country. After initial setbacks, the Azim Premji Foundation focussed on working with school teachers and administration across states to address challenges in education.Premji won a special ET Award for philanthropy in 2010 and the Azim Premji Foundation won the ET Corporate Citizen Award in 2006.