Fathers footsteps Date:   Friday , June 27, 2008 Rishad Premji, the eldest son of Wipro Chairman Azim Premji, is slated to join the IT bellwether by mid-July. Rishad will join Wipro as Business Manager, in the BFSI vertical. Rishad is currently working with a global consultancy firm in Europe. Incidentally, Premji, who still holds about 80 percent of Wipro, joined the company at the age of 21 following his father’s sudden death in 1966. The company was then known as Western India Vegetable Oils Company. Rishad at 30, is joining at a middle level and will report to Girish .S. Pranjpe, the head of Banking Finance, Securities, and Insurance vertical. While Rishad seems to be following in his father’s footsteps, Satyam founder B Ramalinga Raju has clarified that his sons Teja B Raju and Rama B Raju will not be joining Satyam. “Even if I ask, they will not join. They are running more exciting business,” Ramalinga Raju recently said. His two sons run Maytas Infrastructure and Maytas Properties respectively.