Adar Poonawalla Age, Wife, Children, Family, Biography

Bio/Wiki
Profession	Businessman
Famous For	Being the CEO of world's largest vaccine producing company, Serum Institute of India
Physical Stats & More
Height (approx.)	in centimeters- 165 cm in meters- 1.65 m in feet & inches- 5’ 5”
Eye Colour	Black
Hair Colour	Black
Career
Awards, Honours, Achievements	• Adar Poonawalla got featured in GQ magazine's list of 50 most influential young Indians • He received the Philanthropist of the year award in 2016 • He was awarded the 'Humanitarian Endeavour Award' at the Hello Hall of Fame Awards in 2017 • He received the 'Indian of the Year' in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Business Category in 2017 • He won the 'Business Leader of the Year' award at Maharashtra Achievers Awards in 2018 • He was awarded the CNBC Asia's Corporate Social Responsibility award in 2018 • He was named in the Fortune Magazine's global '40 Under 40' list in 2020. • He was among the six people who were named as 'Asians of the Year' by Singapore's leading daily newspaper The Straits Times for his role in fighting against the COVID-19 pandemic.
Personal Life
Date of Birth	14 January 1981 (Wednesday)
Age (as of 2021)	43 Years
Birthplace	Pune, Maharashtra
Zodiac sign	Capricorn
Nationality	Indian
Hometown	Pune, Maharashtra
School	• The Bishop's School, Pune • St. Edmund's School, Canterbury
College/University	University of Westminister, London
Educational Qualification	BA (honours) in Business Management [1]The Economic Times
Caste	Parsi [2]The Times of India
Controversies	• On 4 January 2021, during an interview on NDTV, Adar Poonawalla called out Bharat Biotech's Covaxin saying that only three COVID-19 vaccines were reliable and the rest were as good as water. The three vaccines are Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Oxford-AstraZeneca a.k.a. Covishield (manufactured by Serum Institute India) which have passed the clinical tests. In response to this, Krishna Ella, chairman of Bharat Biotech released a statement saying that they have carried out all the necessary clinical tests. [3]India Today • In May 2021, Adar Poonawalla moved to London along with his family as he was receiving threatening phone calls from country's 'most powerful' including ministers, businessmen, and others for immediate supply of COVID-19 vaccine Covishield. Adar further added that his will stay in London for a while to protect himself from the threats and will come back to India once the situation gets better. [4]Business Today
Relationships & More
Marital Status	Married
Marriage Date	15 December 2006 (Friday)
Family
Wife	Natasha Poonawalla
Children	Son- Cyrus (born in 2009) and Darius (born in 2015)
Parents	Father- Cyrus Poonawalla (Managing Director of Serum Institute of India (SII) Mother- Villoo Poonawalla (died in 2010)
Favourite Things
Film	Hollywood- Gladiator (2000)
Style Quotient
Car Collection	• Batmobile (based on Mercedes S350) • Ferrari 458 Italia • Mercedes SLS AMG • Lamborghini Gallardo • Porsche Cayenne • BMW 760 Li • Rolls Royce Phantom • Bentley Continental Flying Spur • Ferrari 488 Pista Spider • Ferrari 360 Spyder
Money Factor
Assets/Properties	• Adar Abad Poonawalla House, Pune (the official residence of the Poonawallas) • Poonawalla Stud Farmhouse, Pune (spread over 247 acres) • Lincoln House, Breach Candy Road, South Mumbai (bought in an auction for Rs. 750 crores in 2015)
Net Worth (approx.)	$13.2 billion (Cyrus Poonawalla's net worth) [5]Forbes India

Some Lesser Known Facts About Adar Poonawalla

• Adar Poonawalla is an Indian billionaire businessman who is the CEO and owner of the world’s largest vaccine manufacturers (in terms of the number of doses produced and sold worldwide), Serum Institute of India. The company was founded by his father, Cyrus Poonawalla, in 1966.

• Serum Institute of India (SII) is also responsible for producing India’s first COVID-19 vaccine, Covishield, which was produced with the help of the University of Oxford and pharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca.
  

  Adar Poonawalla with his employees delivering the first lot of Covishield vaccine

• Adar Poonawalla was born in Pune, Maharashtra, and attended The Bishop’s School, Pune till he was ten years old. Later, he was sent to London to complete his formal education. He earned a bachelor’s degree in BA (honors) in Business Management from the University of Westminister in 2002. He shared his experience from the university, and said-
  

  My memories at Westminster are of a nice learning environment and culture which taught me team building and interacting with peers, overall a great learning experience, for which I am always happy and grateful.”

• Adar spent ten years in London and after completing his graduation; he moved back to India in 2002 to join his family business of producing vaccines. He worked under his father’s supervision and joined the Serum Institute of India’s board of directors in 2005. In 2011, he became the CEO of Serum Institute of India.
  

  Adar Poonawalla at the Serum Institute of India lab

• In 2017, the Serum Institute of India became the biggest vaccine-producing company in the world in terms of the number of doses. The company produced an average of 1.5 billion doses of vaccines for a number of diseases such as measles, polio, flu, etc.

• Under the leadership of Adar Poonawalla, SII witnessed remarkable growth as they expanded their supply to more than 145 countries in 2020 as compared to just 35 countries in 2005.

• Adar’s mother, Villoo Poonawalla, was a philanthropist. After her death in 2010, Adar took over the charity work, and in 2012, he started the ‘Villoo Poonawalla Foundation’ in memory of his late mother. The foundation focuses on improving the lives of underprivileged people in India by providing them education, healthcare, water, and sanitation facilities at an affordable price. The foundation has several sub-projects such as eight schools for over 10,000 students, a hospital, and several water treatment plants.
  

  Villoo Poonawalla Memorial Hospital

  

  Villoo Poonawalla English Medium School

• In 2015, Adar Poonawalla launched an environmentally sustainable initiative titled Adar Poonawalla Clean City (APCC). The initiative focused on improving the ways in which solid waste was managed across the urban cities of India and how to make them more livable. Adar started the initiative from Pune and pledged to donate more than Rs. 100 crores from his own wealth for the expansion of the project to different cities. The project was appreciated by many influential and famous personalities of the country including Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India. In 2017, Adar was nominated as one of the brand ambassadors of the government initiative of ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’.
  

  A worker cleaning garbage from the streets under the Adar Poonawalla Clean City initiative

• On 31 May 2021, he was appointed as the chairman of Magma Fincorp Limited, a Mumbai-based non-banking finance company.

• The Poonawalla’s have numerous properties across the country and in the world. The few prominent properties owned by them in Pune and Mumbai are the Adar Abad Poonawalla House, which is the official residence of the family. The house is a perfect blend of vintage and contemporary art and spreads on an area of 22 acres.

• The family also owns a farmhouse called Poonawalla Stud Farmhouse that covers approximately 247 acres of land and comes with a two-story holiday home.
  

  The enterance of Poonawalla Stud Farm house in Pune

• In 2015, the Poonawalla family spent an eye-watering price of Rs. 750 crores to acquire the Grade-III beach facing Lincoln House. The property is located on Breach Candy Road in South Mumbai, and it was the house of the Maharaja of Wankaner. In 1957, the US government bought the property for Rs. 18 lakhs to use it as a consulate house.

• In his leisure time, Adar loves to go on vacations with his family and his favorite holiday destinations are France and Italy.

• Adar is passionate about horse racing and has several horses in his stud farmhouse in Pune.
  

  Adar Poonawalla with his horses at his farm house

• Adar is a car enthusiast and has a fleet of supercars, sports cars, and luxury cars. His cousin brother, Yohan Poonawalla, is also a collector and has several vintage cars and classic cars in his collection.
  

  Car collection of the Poonawalla’s

• Apart from being a car collector, Adar also likes to fly at ease and he owns a Gulfstream G550. The aircraft is known for its speed and allows him to fly anywhere in the world in less than thirteen hours.
  

  Adar Poonawalla’s Gulfstream G550

• On 17 May 2021, Adar Poonawalla offloaded his stake in Panacea Biotec through an open market transaction. According to BSE block deal data, Adar sold 31,57,034 scrips at a price of Rs. 373.85 per share, taking the value of the deal to Rs. 118.02 crores. These shares were bought by the Serum Institute of India (SII). ^[6]Mint

• Adar Poonawalla made headlines by making a deal to buy Aberconway House in London for approximately Rs. 1,444.4 crore in December 2023, making it the second-costliest in London for the year. The mansion was said to be acquired by Serum Life Sciences Ltd., a British subsidiary of the Poonawalla family’s Serum Institute of India. ^[7]The Telegraph ^[8]India Today

• In October 2024, he bought 50 per cent stakes in Karan Johar‘s Dharma Productions for over a thousand crore.