Back To Home Turf

As the Director of Indian Operations, he will overlook the
shifting of McAfee's office to a bigger place by the year-end and co-ordinate
Indian operations with those of other countries. And he looks forward to explore
the country's hilly regions, in his attempt to scale new heights, literally.

What do you get when you mix a tremendous zest for life and love for your
job? It's someone who lives life to the fullest and Murali Narayanamurthy is
one such person; who enjoys every minute of his life.

Currently, he has several things up his sleeve. Being appointed as Director,
Operations of McAfee only three months back, there are several things he wishes
to do.

The company plans to increase the work force from the current 390 to 600. One
of the biggest tasks he has on hand is to move to a bigger facility by year-end
and will house all employees. Currently they are scouting for places, and are
yet to finalize one, but plan to shift to a new place by early next year.

Murali Narayanamurthy  Director,  India Operations, McAfee “I love camping or mountaineering, as during schooldays, we used to travel at least four to five times a year. Even now, if I don't visit one or two mountain tops annually, I get restless”

Apart from these tasks, Murali looks after the finance, legal, IT and PR
departments. He helps in coordinating the Indian operations with those of other
countries and sees to it that the various sites work in tandem with each other.

Adopting varying cultures

In his previous job at First Consulting Group (FCG), Murali was Director,
Application Group and he built the engineering team there. He was based out of
USA and when he got an opportunity to return to India from FCG, he grabbed it
with both hands.

Despite having worked and lived varied lifestyles in nine countries, it is
India that kept drew him back to where he belonged. "I wanted to come back
to India as my children are growing up and my wife, Lakshmi and I wanted to give
them strong roots," explained Murali.

Apart from USA, Murali has lived with different cultures in UK, Germany,
Malaysia, Bangkok and other ones as well. But he is home with all of them.

His upbringing has helped foster this adaptability. Since his father was a
Government of India official, he traveled all over the country. "I did my
schooling from Kendriya Vidyalaya or Central school as it was previously called.
A lot of things I do today as an adult can be related to the habits formed when
I was in school," he reminisces.

He graduated in Electronics and pursued his post graduation in Applied
Computer Science from Secunderabad. Murali landed himself a job at ORG in New
Delhi, the moment he was out of college. As luck would have it, he had an
opportunity to move the US of A in the late eighties. There has been no looking
back after that.

Murali was in Boy Scouts for almost seven years, which he thoroughly loved,
and made him an outdoor person. "At any given time, I would love going
camping or mountaineering, as back in school, we used to travel at least four to
five times a year. Even now, if I don't visit one or two mountain tops, I get
restless," remarks Murali.

There are several sports that Murali likes and even manages to play quite a
few of them as well. He would frequently play table tennis in office with his
colleagues and likes kicking the football too. "Few are aware of the fact
that when I was in UK, I used to be a part of the D-level County cricket
team," says he proudly.

Murali is a self-confessed foodie and relishes good food, and simply loves
the tasty food that his wife cooks. What is different though is that he equally
enjoys someone else cook too. "I was brought up as a vegetarian, but when
you travel extensively, you eat anything that is served. Thus, I enjoy all types
of cuisines today," admits Murali.

He also appreciates the taste of good wine, and till not long ago used to
have a collection of different wines. He yet collects hats and says that they
are different everywhere, and offer a lot of variety. Ironically, he says that
he loses them too often as well.

Being a kid with his children

Murali and his wife have two sons, Amit and Ashwin. He relives his childhood
through them. One of his sons learns the keyboard and Murali, along with him,
takes lessons for playing the instrument and confesses that he feels very
pleased learning it.

He has a varied taste in music. "As a child, you like Hindi film music,
when you are growing and are an adolescent, it is different, and when you are an
adult, your liking again changes," he explains. His other son pursues
painting as a hobby.

Murali has always been guided by ambition and has a simple living. "My
wife is my biggest strength, and gave up her career so that I could concentrate
on mine. He considers his parents as his friends and a major source of
strength," smiles he. Murali says that so far it has been a rewarding
career and is really happy with the way life has been shaping up so far. He is
thrilled about life right now, lives every minute to the fullest and has
thoroughly enjoyed his two years in Bangalore too.