After 10 years at offshoring leader GE, Paul has taken Wipro from a £150m business in 1999 past the symbolic $1bn revenue milestone earlier this year, with profit growth figures of 35 per cent a year - mostly organic - that must make some of the western IT services execs weep.

No one symbolises Wipro's global ambitions more than Paul, who bases himself predominantly in the US and is currently building up the project management side of the services business, which is likely to enable the company to compete with the established western IT vendors on the bigger outsourcing deals. Already this year Wipro has picked up significant deals with the likes of Aviva and Shell.

But it's not all roses. Paul will have to tackle increasing pressure on the currently massive profit margins because of the US-led backlash, competition from other developing countries and wage inflation in India.