StartupLanes

TOP 50 CEOs IN INDIA

chief executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer, or chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives in charge of managing an organization – especially an independent legal entity such as a company or nonprofit institution. CEOs find roles in a range of organizations, including public and private corporations, non-profit organizations and even some government organizations.

India is a great country, be it wonderful places, festivals, or food, it lives up with a glorified history of struggle, culture, heritage, and also numerous awesome successful entrepreneurs and it is the place where Asia’s richest person lives.  The world’s largest democratic country sums up the victory by their respectful, successful, intellectual, intelligent, and zeal full minds. The money value of a person is strictly taken as a measure of one’s triumphs in life. Here we present India’s Top 50 CEOs who have paved the way of life in making themselves and their company a brand.

1.  Mukesh Ambani

Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani (born 19 April 1957) is an Indian billionaire businessman, and the chairman, managing director, and largest shareholder of Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL), a Fortune Global 500 company and India’s most valuable company by market value. According to Forbes, he is the richest person in Asia with a net worth of US$90 billion and the 11th richest person in the world, as of 2 December 2021.  Mr. Ambani placed in the list holding 44.7% of stake in the company worth with almost salary of 15 crores per annum as the leader has created the space of Reliance Industries Ltd on the red-carpet glory. He is the only Indian businessman on Forbes’ list of the world’s most powerful people. As of October 2020, Mukesh Ambani was ranked by Forbes as the 6th-wealthiest person in the world. He is also Asia’s richest person with a net worth of $44.3 billion in July 2018. 

2. Rajesh Gopinathan

Rajesh Gopinathan (born 1971) is the CEO and Managing Director of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a global IT services, consulting and business solutions organization. He was elevated to the role of Chief Executive in February 2017 after serving as the Chief Financial Officer since 2013. Born in 1971, Rajesh is one of the youngest CEOs in the Tata Group. In 2001, Rajesh joined Tata Consultancy Services from the Tata Industries and worked to drive TCS’ newly established e-business unit in the United States. He was involved in the design, structure and implementation of the new organizational structure and operating model of the company. Rajesh took over as the Chief Financial Officer of the company in 2013. Prior to this role, he was Vice President – Business Finance, where he was responsible for the financial management of the company’s individual operating units. After serving as the Chief Financial Officer of the company for 4 years, he was elevated to the role of Chief Executive Officer in February 2017.

3. Dilip Shanghvi

Dilip Shanghvi (born 1 October 1955) is an Indian billionaire businessman and one of the country’s richest people. He is the Founder and CEO of Sun Pharmaceuticals. The Government of India awarded him the civilian honor of the Padma Shri in 2016. India Today magazine ranked him 8th in India’s most powerful people of 2017 list. According to Forbes, as of October 2021, Shanghvi is the 14th richest person in India with a net worth of US$14.3 billion. In 1982, the 27-year-old Sanghavi finally opened his first manufacturing unit with a capital of INR 10,000. He named his venture Sun Pharmaceutical Industries. The unit, located in Vapi in his native state of Gujarat, a short drive away from Mumbai, produced exactly one psychiatry drug.  In April 2014 Sun, Ranbaxy, and Daiichi Sankyo (the majority shareholder in Ranbaxy) agreed that Sun would acquire all outstanding shares of Ranbaxy for $3.2 billion in Sun stock and that Sun would take on $800M in Ranbaxy debt, the deal closed in March 2015 and made Sun the largest drug company in India and fifth largest in the world.

4. Salil Parekh

Salil Parekh is the current chief executive officer and managing director of Infosys. Parekh took over from interim CEO U B Pravin Rao on 2 January 2018. He is a graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT Bombay) in Aeronautical Engineering. Master of Engineering degree in Computer Science and Mechanical Engineering from Cornell University. Patience, persistence, and determination make an unbeatable package of triumph. Mr. Salil Parekh is one of the successful leaders who have taken the organization to the next level. The glorified IT company is lead by serving his wonderful time and consideration of nearly INR 35 crores. He was member of the group executive board, and was appointed deputy CEO in March 2015. He was responsible for overseeing a business cluster comprising Application Services and Cloud Infrastructure Services among others.

5. Sanjiv Mehta

Sanjiv Mehta (born 1959/1960) is an Indian business executive, and the chairman and managing director (MD) of Hindustan Unilever Limited, India’s largest Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) Company. Mehta became the CEO and MD of Hindustan Unilever in October 2013, and in June 2018 was appointed as the chairman and MD. He also heads Unilever’s business in South Asia, as cluster president encompassing businesses in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal. Mehta is a member of the Unilever Leadership Executive, its global executive board. He is a chartered accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and later completed the Advanced Management Programme from the Harvard Business School.  In April 2002 he was appointed as the chairman and managing director of Unilever Bangladesh. In 2007, he moved to Manila as the chairman of Unilever Philippines, and in 2008 was appointed as the chairman of Unilever North Africa and Middle East (NAME).

6. Suresh Mangalani

Suresh Mangalani is the Chief Executive Officer of Adani Gas Ltd. Suresh is a seasoned professional with 29 years of varied experience in diversified businesses. He has immense experience in Oil & Gas projects & major specialization in conceptualizing, negotiating, forming & successfully operating City Gas Distribution businesses and joint ventures. Suresh started his career with Kelvinator (now Whirlpool India) and subsequently worked with GAIL, Mahanagar Gas (JV of GAIL and Shell) and India Gas Solutions (JV of RIL and BP). Prior to joining Adani Gas Limited, Suresh was working with Reliance Industries ltd. as Sr. Vice President & Head of Commercial of petroleum retail business. Suresh by profession is a Cost Accountant and has acquired educational degrees of M.COM, LLB, ACMA, FCS.

7. Suresh Narayanan

Mr. Suresh Narayanan joined the Board of Directors of Nestlé India Limited as Managing Director from 1st August, 2015. Mr. Narayanan has been designated as the Chairman and Managing Director of the Company with effect from 29th October, 2015. He is also member of Corporate Social Responsibility Committee of the Board of Directors of the
Company. Mr. Suresh Narayanan holds a Master’s Degree in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics. He has a Diploma from the IMD Program for Executive Development and has participated in the Nestlé Leadership Program of the London Business School. He has over 30 years of rich and exhaustive experience in the FMCG Industry and has held senior management and top leadership roles in leading global companies. Mr. Narayanan was Chairman and CEO of Nestlé Philippines prior to joining Nestlé India as Managing Director. Mr. Narayanan joined Nestlé in 1999 as Executive Vice President for Sales in India, where he spearheaded major structural and strategic changes in Sales and Customer Management and set up the chilled dairy business. Mr. Narayanan began his career as a management trainee with Hindustan Unilever, where he held numerous positions of increasing responsibility in Sales, Marketing and General Management. He has also worked with Colgate Palmolive in India.

8. Vinay Prakash

Vinay Prakash is the Chief Executive Officer of Adani Enterprise and Natural Resources. Mr. Prakash also holds key positions in various industry bodies and heads / headed committees of FIMI, ASSOCHAM, FICCI and CII where he facilitates exchange of ideas and collaboration, with a focus on responsible mining and sustainability. He has been honoured at many prestigious platforms and received the Global Business Excellence Award at World Petrocoal Congress 2017. Mr. Prakash holds B.Tech (Mechanical), PG Diploma in Operations / Material Management , MBA (Finance) and he is also pursuing PhD from Indian Institute of Technology-Indian School of Mines (IIT-ISM) on Sustainable Mining Practices. Prior to joining the Adani Group in 2001, he worked with the Aditya Birla Group for eight years. He is an enthusiast for energy security and sustainability, Mr. Prakash has nurtured the Natural Resources business of the Adani Group since its inception and oversees its diversification and expansion in India and abroad. Natural Resources division comprises of Integrated Coal Management, Iron Ore, Minerals, Bunkering, Mining, Cement & Aggregate Businesses.

9. Gopal Vittal

Gopal Vittal (born 1967) is an Indian business executive. He is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Bharti Airtel (India) and South Asia, an Indian multinational telecommunications services company with operations in 20 countries. Vittal has an undergraduate degree from Madras Christian College and MBA from IIM Calcutta.After graduating from IIM Calcutta in 1990, he joined Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL), one of India’s biggest FMCG companies. The 3rd largest telecom services provider of the nation, Bharti Airtel is headed by a phenomenal person also known as patron and philanthropist Mr. Gopal Vittal earning around 169.73 million towards annual remuneration disclosed in the 2017-18 annual report. In early 2013, Airtel announced that Vittal would be the next CEO of Airtel India and he took over as the CEO on 1 March 2013.

10. Vneet S. Jaain

 Vneet S. Jaain is the Managing Director and CEO of Adani Green Energy Limited. He has been associated with Adani Group for over 15 years. During his association, he has been spearheaded on Group’s strategy for its Energy and Infrastructure business and has been instrumental growing various businesses from conceptualisation to operation – Renewable, Power generation, Transmission and Distribution. He was instrumental in setting up of Energy Network Operations Centre (ENOC) and also the Project Monitoring & Control Group – two of Group’s Centre of Excellence. He has led many first of its kind projects in the country driven by his deep technical understanding and sector focus. Under his able leadership Adani Group has executed and set-up several key energy projects like, then World’s largest solar plant (at the time) at Kamuthi, setting up of India’s largest solar module manufacturing facility, India’s first and longest private owned HVDC transmission network. Each of this projects are examples of benchmark in the Energy Industry.

11. Uday Kotak

Uday Suresh Kotak (born 15 March 1959) is an Indian billionaire banker and the executive vice chairman and managing director of Kotak Mahindra Bank. In the early 1980s, while India was still a closed economy and economic growth was muted, Kotak decided to start out on his own, refusing a lucrative job option from a multinational. Over the next few years, he diversified his business into various areas of financial services, establishing a prominent presence in bills discounting, stockbroking, investment banking, car finance, life insurance and mutual funds. On 22 March 2003, Kotak Mahindra Finance Ltd. became the first company in India’s corporate history to receive a banking license from Reserve Bank of India. Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimated his wealth to be US$14.8 billion as of April 2021. In 2006 he ended a 14 year partnership with Goldman Sachs by acquiring its 25% stake in two subsidiaries for $72 million.

12. C. Vijayakumar

C Vijayakumar (also known as CVK) is the chief executive officer and Managing Director of HCL Technologies, a US$10.54 billion global technology company. Over the years, Vijay has previously held several technology, business and operational leadership positions at HCL. He is currently the Chairman of World Economic Forum’s IT Governor’s Community as well as a Board Member of the US-India Business Council. Vijay holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree in electrical & electronics engineering from PSG College of Technology, Tamil Nadu, India. C Vijayakumar joined HCL Technologies in 1994 in the founding startup team of Comnet as a senior technical engineer. Over the years, he held a wide portfolio of responsibilities in HCL across sales, operations and service delivery. He was appointed the company’s chief operating officer in July 2016 and later that year in Oct 2016, promoted to be the CEO, succeeding Anant Gupta. Prior to becoming COO of the company, CVK was the President of HCL’s Infrastructure Services business, a position he held since March 2015.

13. Amit Syngle

Amit Syngle is the Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer of Asian Paints. Amit Syngle, is a Mechanical engineer and a Postgraduate in Management ( 1990 Batch) from UBS, Chandigarh. He started his career with the company as a Management Trainee, and has been working with the company for last 29 years. He has worked in various capacities and across functions Sales, Marketing, Supply Chain & Research and Technology. Priorly as the company COO, he was heading the Indian Decorative business of more than US$ 2.5 billion. Before that he was the President – Sales & Marketing  and was responsible for not only the Sales & Marketing at Asian Paints but also headed the Research & Technology function across the organization.

14. Ignatius Navil Noronha

Ignatius Navil Noronha, the chief executive officer of Avenue Supermarts Ltd which owns the DMart retail chain, has seen his net worth rise above a billion dollars since after an incredible 113% rise in company’s stock this year. Noronha was born and brought up in Mumbai and graduated from the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies with a management degree. Noronha previously worked for FMCG giant Hindustan Unilever. Radhakishnan Damani, the founder of Avenue Supermarts, recruited him as the chief of business in 2004. In 2007, he became the company’s CEO. Avenue Supermarts’ stock soared to a new peak of 5,899 on the BSE, gaining as much as 10.7% intraday. Stocks have been moving upward for seven days in a row, gaining about 40% during that time. The 47-years-old Noronha has now surpassed Rs 7,744 crore in net worth, making him India’s richest professional manager. Hiss wealth gain resulted from a 19-fold increase in the value of Avenue Supermarts’ stock.

15. Sanjiv Bajaj

Sanjiv Bajaj (born 2 November 1969) is the chairman and managing director of Bajaj Finserv. Born into the Bajaj family, Sanjiv is the great-grandson of founder Jamnalal Bajaj and the younger son of Bajaj Group chairman, Rahul Bajaj. He pursued his mechanical engineering degree from the University of Pune, masters degree in manufacturing systems engineering from the University of Warwick, and a management degree from Harvard Business School. Sanjiv began his career in 1994 with Bajaj Auto. He was credited in bringing American-style supply chain management in the Bajaj Auto using General Motors as a model. Currently, he is serving as the non-executive director of Bajaj Auto. After Bajaj Auto’s demerger in 2007, Sanjiv took charge as the managing director of Bajaj Finserv. He took over additional roles like the chairman of Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance and Bajaj Allianz General Insurance, vice chairman of Bajaj Finance, and managing director of Bajaj Holdings & Investment Limited in the year 2012. Currently, he is the chairman and managing director of Bajaj Finserv.

16. Sanjiv Puri

Sanjiv Puri (59) is the Chairman & Managing Director of ITC Limited. Puri was appointed as a Wholetime Director on the Board of ITC with effect from December 6, 2015, Chief Executive Officer in February 2017 and re-designated as the Managing Director in May 2018. He was also appointed as the Chairman effective May 13, 2019. He is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and Wharton School of Business. Puri joined ITC in January 1986. During his career of over three decades at ITC and its subsidiaries, he has held several business leadership positions and also handled a wide range of responsibilities in manufacturing, operations and information & digital technology. Puri served as Chief Operating Officer of ITC between July 2016 and January 2017, and prior to that as President, FMCG Businesses – Cigarettes, Foods, Personal Care, Education & Stationery Products, Matches and Agarbattis, since December 2014. Earlier, he was the Divisional Chief Executive of the Tobacco Division since 2009, with additional responsibility for the Company’s Trade Marketing & Distribution Vertical. He led ITC Infotech India Limited (‘I3L’), a wholly owned subsidiary of ITC, as its Managing Director from May 2006 to August 2009.

17. S N Subrahmanyan

Sekharipuram Narayanan Subrahmanyan (born 16 March 1960) is the Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director of Larsen & Toubro. He took over the reins from Mr Anil Manibhai Naik on 1 July 2017. S N Subrahmanyan is also the Vice Chairman on the Boards of LTI and L&T Technology Services, Non-Executive Chairman of L&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad) Limited and Vice Chairman of the Indian multinational IT and outsourcing company, Mindtree acquired March 2019. In February 2021, he was appointed Chairman of the National Safety Council (NSC) for three years by the Union Ministry of Labour & Employment. In July 2011, S N Subrahmanyan was appointed as full-time Director on the L&T Board and designated as Member of the Board and Senior Executive Vice President (Construction). In October 2015, he was designated Deputy Managing Director & President, L&T. In 2017, he was promoted to the role of Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Larsen & Toubro (L&T) by the company’s board of directors.

18. Kenichi Ayukawa

Kenichi Ayukawa is Managing Director & CEO at Maruti Suzuki. A Law graduate from Osaka University, Japan, Mr. Ayukawa joined Suzuki Motor Corporation in 1980. Born in 1955, Mr. Ayukawa has handled several key assignments at Suzuki Motor Corporation, Japan and in the Group’s overseas operations. Mr. Ayukawa served as Managing Director of Pak Suzuki Motor Company from May 2004 to June 2008. He served as Director on the Board of Maruti Suzuki India Limited from July 2008 to March 2013. Before taking charge as the Managing Director at Maruti Suzuki India Limited he served as Managing Executive Officer and Executive General Manager, Global Marketing at Suzuki Motor Corporation, Japan.

19. C K Venkataraman

C K Venkataraman is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Titan Company Limited. Mr. Venkataraman, a post graduate diploma holder in Management from IIM-Ahmedabad, joined Titan Company Limited in 1990, and worked in the Advertising and Marketing functions before becoming the Head of Sales & Marketing for the Titan brand in 2003. Thereafter he took charge of the Jewellery Division in 2005 and last held the position of Chief Executive Officer, Jewellery till September 30, 2019. Subsequently, he assumed office as Managing Director of the Company from October 1, 2019.

20. Amitabh Chaudhry

Amitabh Chaudhry (born 1964) is an Indian banker, and the managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO) of Axis Bank, the third largest private sector bank in India. He joined Axis in January 2019, after heading HDFC Life Insurance for nine years. Chaudhry is an engineer from Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, and has done his post graduation in Business Management from Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. Prior to HDFC Life, Chaudhry was the MD and CEO of Infosys BPO and the Head of testing unit of Infosys Technologies Ltd. Chaudhry began his career with Bank of America in 1987 and undertook diverse roles such as Head of Technology Investment Banking for Asia, Regional Finance Head for Wholesale Banking and Global Markets, and Chief Finance Officer of Bank of America (India). Later, he moved to Credit Lyonnais Securities in 2001 as the Head of Investment Banking franchise for South East Asia.

21. Karan Adani

Mr. Karan Adani is the Chief Executive Officer of Adani Ports and SEZ Limited (APSEZ). He is currently spearheading a transformation at APSEZ to form an integrated logistics company with an objective to add further value for the customers. An economics graduate from Purdue University, USA, He is technologically savvy with a global outlook and believes in setting the highest benchmarks in all areas of business. He has successfully steered the growth strategy of APSEZ resulting in its rapid expansion from two ports to a string of ten ports and terminals. In 2009, Karan Adani joined Adani Ports & SEZ Limited (APSEZ). And, in the year 2016, he took over the operations of the company. In 2018, he led an acquisition campaign for Kattupalli port in Tamil Nadu (about 30 km from Chennai Port and adjoining the Ennore Port). The port was acquired from Larsen and Toubro and making it 10th port in APSEZ network. In 2019, he was appointed to head Adani Group’s airport projects which includes; Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport, Jaipur International Airport, Chaudhary Charan Singh International Airport, Mangalore International Airport, and Trivandrum International Airport.

22. T. V. Narendran

T. V. Narendran (born 2 June 1965) is an Indian business executive. He is currently the global CEO and Managing Director of Tata Steel, one of the largest steel producers in the world. He is the current President of Confederation of Indian Industry. Narendran holds an undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering from Regional Engineering College, Tiruchirappalli (now known as National Institute of Technology, Tiruchirappalli) and an MBA from Indian Institute of Management Calcutta. Narendran joined Tata Steel in 1988 straight after his MBA from IIM Calcutta. He worked in the International Trading Division of Tata Steel from 1988 to 1997 wherein he spent five years in Dubai looking after Tata Steels’ exports to the Middle East. From 1997 to 2001, he spent time in Tata Steels’ marketing and sales division and was involved in market development work for the Cold Rolling Mill Project, Supply Chain Management, Sales Planning, etc. From 2001 to 2003, he was the Chief of Marketing & Sales (Long Products) and played a key role in building the ‘Tata Tiscon’ brand and the distribution network for the same. On 31 October 2017, he was appointed as the global CEO and MD of Tata Steel.

23. Vibha Padalkar

Vibha Padalkar is the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of HDFC Life. Her upbringing was far from starry or luxurious. As the daughter of two hardworking public servants, she grew up understanding the importance of charting one’s own path into the world. Vibha was born in Chennai and did most of her schooling there. She is a chartered accountant who has been with the Indian life insurance company for more than 13 years, its CEO in 2018. In the fiscal year ending March 2021, HDFC Life, the largest private insurer in India, expanded its market share by 15.5% from 14.2%; it now insures over 40 million people across India. And despite COVID-19 devastating India, Padalkar has kept the company on an even footing. In the quarter that ended in June 2021, when the outbreak of the Delta variant quadrupled insurance payments and ate into the company’s profits, HDFC Life’s value of new business grew by 40%, increasing its market share further to 17.8%. In one of India’s largest insurance deals, HDFC Life also bought out its rival Exide Life Insurance in September 2021 for 66.87 billion rupees ($915 million) to boost its distribution of products across the country.

24. Bharat Puri

Bharat’s association with Pidilite began as an Independent Director of the company in 2008. His career has witnessed many achievements during his tenure at leading Indian and Global companies. In his last assignment, he was President – Global Chocolate, Gum and Candy Categories at Mondelez International, Zurich with worldwide responsibilities for the growth of these categories. Bharat started his career with Asian Paints in 1982 and rose to the position of General Manager – Sales & Marketing. He then moved to Cadbury in 1998 as Director of Sales and Marketing for Cadbury India. In 2002, he was appointed Managing Director South Asia, after which he moved to Singapore in 2006 where he was responsible for Strategy, Marketing and Sales for the Asia Pacific region. From then onwards, a series of senior leadership positions at the country, region and global level shaped his career. Bharat has completed his MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.

25. Sanjay Jalona

Sanjay Jalona is the CEO and Managing Director of Larsen & Toubro Infotech (LTI). Sanjay joined the company in 2015 and has since led a rapid and comprehensive transformation of LTI into a leading technology consulting and digital solutions company, partnering with some of the most prestigious global enterprises. Under Sanjay’s leadership, LTI has built deep digital capabilities and an enviable culture of client-centric innovation. Sanjay guided the company through one of the sector’s most successful IPOs in a decade and a rebranding effort that positioned LTI as a leader in convergence of digital and physical world. Under Sanjay’s leadership, LTI surpassed USD 1 Billion in revenue and has built a resilient portfolio with consistent growth and profitability. Since its IPO in 2016, company’s value has risen about three times and its stellar performance has led to LTI being added to various Indian and international benchmark indices. Less than four years after being listed, LTI got included in the NIFTY Next 50 Index of National Stock Exchange in February 2020.

26. Sunil Duggal

Sunil Duggal is the Chief Executive Officer of Vedantu. He is also serving as the Chairman of the Vedanta Ethics Committee, Anchor for Vedanta HSE Council, Vice Chairman – International Zinc Association, President – Indian Lead Zinc Development Association, Chairman – FIMI Non Ferrous Metals Committee, Co-Chair – CII National Committee on Mining for 2017-18, Co-Chair – FICCI Non-Ferrous Metals Committee 2018 and Chairman, Skill Council for Mining Sector, India. Result oriented professional with over 34 years of experience of leading high performance teams and 20+ years in leadership positions. He is keenly focused on Safety, Automation & Digitalization, I am leading HZL on a growth path with one of the fastest underground ramp ups globally (CAGR of +30%).

27. Jayant V Dhobley

Jayant Dhobley is currently Business Head and Chief Executive Officer, Global Chemicals, Fashion Yarn & Insulators. Prior to joining the Aditya Birla Group in January 2021, Mr. Dhobley led Strategy & Operations for the Asia-Pacific region at Amcor Limited. He has over 30 years of experience in the Specialty Materials, Polymers, Packaging & Chemical Industries and has worked across multiple functions (P&L, Strategy, M&A, Projects and Operations) in both regional and global roles. Mr. Dhobley has a B.E. in Polymer Technology from the University of Pune and is a Life Member of the Indian Institute of Chemical Engineers. He has attended Executive Leadership Programs both at Wharton School of Business, USA and Duke CE, USA.

28. Shrikant Madhav Vaidya

Shrikant Madhav Vaidya is a Chemical Engineer from the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela. He has over 34 years of extensive experience in refining & petrochemicals operations. He has had a decade-long association with India’s largest cracker plant – the Panipat Naphtha Cracker Complex, a major driver of IndianOil’s petrochemicals business – right from the drawing board stage. He is among the select technocrats in the Indian oil & gas industry who are proficient in all facets of refinery-petrochemicals integration, desirable for the sustainability of the oil & gas industry in the long-term. Mr. Vaidya is also a Non-Executive Chairman on the Board of Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd. (a Subsidiary of IndianOil), Ratnagiri Refinery & Petrochemicals Ltd., Indian Oiltanking Ltd., Hindustan Urvarak & Rasayan Ltd. (all three are Joint Venture Companies of IndianOil). He is also a Non-Executive Director on the Board of Petronet LNG Ltd. (a Joint Venture of IndianOil) and President of World LPG Association, Paris.

29. Satish Pai

Mr. Satish Pai is Managing Director, Hindalco Industries and Director, Board of Aditya Birla Management Corporation Pvt. Ltd. He joined the Aditya Birla Group as the CEO of Hindalco’s Aluminium Business in August 2013.  He has also served as the Deputy Managing Director of Hindalco and headed its copper business. Prior to joining the Aditya Birla Group, Mr. Pai worked with Schlumberger based out of Paris for 28 years. Mr. Pai also serves as a Director on the board of ABB, Zurich. He is a life member of the Indian Institute of Metals and is a part of CII’s Task Force on China. He holds the position of Vice President and Chairman of the Government Affairs Committee of the Aluminium Association of India and is the Chairman of FICCI’s Non-Ferrous Metals Committee. Mr. Pai holds a B. Tech degree from IIT Madras and received the ‘Distinguished Alumni Award’ in 2017. He was conferred the Doctor of Letters Honoris Causa (D. Litt) by Ajeenkya DY Patil University in 2020. Mr. Pai holds a patent in directional drilling.

30. Mohit Malhotra

Mr. Mohit Malhotra is a Management Graduate from Pune University and holds Executive Masters in International Business from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, New Delhi. He joined Dabur in 1994 and handled key assignments in Marketing and Sales. In 2001 he took over as the Business Head of European Union. In 2004 he moved into Dabur’s International Business as Head of Marketing, based in Dubai, and took over the reins as Chief Executive Officer of Dabur International in 2008.  Mr. Mohit Malhotra is currently the Chief Executive Officer of the $1.2 Billion Dabur India Ltd. and is driving the Company’s agenda to popularize and contemporize Ayurveda while focusing on Dabur’s motto of being “Dedicated to the Health & Well-Being of every household”. Mr. Malhotra possesses a strong leadership record and has a deep understanding of the consumer and business landscape across geographies. His achievements in business have earned recognition at the global level. He has been ranked in Forbes Middle East’s list of Arab World’s leading Indian Executives, consecutively for 4 years in a row from 2014, besides being named the NRI Professional of the Year 2016.


31. Anish Shah

Dr. Anish Shah is a Non-Executive Director of Tech Mahindra Limited and the Managing Director and CEO of Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. He joined Mahindra Group in 2014, as Group President (Strategy), and worked closely with all businesses on key strategic initiatives, built capabilities such as digitization & data sciences and enabled synergies across group companies. In 2019, he was appointed Deputy Managing Director and Group CFO, with responsibility for the Group Corporate Office and full oversight of all businesses other than the Auto and Farm sectors, as a part of the transition plan to the CEO role. As a strategy consultant at Bain & Company in Boston, he worked across multiple industries, including banking, oil rigs, paper, paint, steam boilers and medical equipment. His first role was with Citibank in Mumbai, where he issued bank guarantees and letters of credit as Assistant Manager, Trade Services. Anish holds a Ph.D from Carnegie Mellon’s Tepper School of Business where his doctoral thesis was in the field of Corporate Governance. He also received a Masters degree from Carnegie Mellon and has a post-graduate diploma in Management from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He has received various scholarships, including the William Latimer Mellon Scholarship, Industry Scholarship at IIMA, National Talent Search and Sir Dorabji Tata Trust.

32. Deepinder Goyal

Deepinder Goyal, Founder & CEO, Zomato, is the Founder and CEO of Zomato. Prior to starting Zomato, Deepinder worked as a management consultant with Bain and Company in New Delhi. It was at Bain that Deepinder conceived the idea of an online restaurant information service after seeing the demand for menu cards among his colleagues. He left Bain in 2008 to start Zomato (then foodiebay) out of his apartment and has since overseen strategy and product development. Deepinder graduated with a Mathematics and Computing degree from IIT Delhi in 2005 and hails from Muktsar in Punjab. From zero to 4 million users per month, 8.5 lakh plus app downloads, 150 young and enthusiastic Zomans spread across 14 offices (2 outside India), 42,000 plus restaurant listings in India and 4000 plus in Dubai, and over 1000 clients, Zomato’s journey over the 4 years has been nothing short of exciting. They recently expanded from 10 to 12 cities in India with the launch of our Lucknow and Indore sections. They are currently working on the launch of 3 more cities within India and after the initial success of our Dubai section in the international markets we are now focusing on the launch other cities in the Middle East and South East Asia by the end of 2012. 

33. Rajeev Talwar

Rajeev Talwar is Chief Executive Officer, Whole-time Director of DLF Ltd. Mr. Talwar is an alumnus of St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi, started his career as a Probationary Officer in State Bank of India and was selected for the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in 1978. He held a number of important positions in the Central, State Governments and Union Territories. He possesses a rich experience of policy-making in crucial economic sectors in addition to management of a number of public sector enterprises and statutory bodies in the transport, tourism and infrastructure sectors. He was on the Board of Delhi Tourism and Transport Development Corporation, Delhi Transport Corporation, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation and Indraprastha Gas Limited. As a Government officer, he is credited with a number of achievements. He was among the pioneers in the formulation, implementation and promotion of India’s tourism policy, including their marketing in India and overseas; he was instrumental in the preparation and implementation of Delhi’s environment and tourism policies. Mr. Talwar was instrumental for shifting all commercial vehicles in Delhi to CNG and associated for unprecedented increase in India’s port capacities mainly through private sector investment. He is President of PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Director on the Board of several other companies.

34. Sudhir Sitapati

Sudhir Sitapati is the Managing Director and CEO of Godrej Consumer Products Limited. Prior to this, Sudhir was the Executive Director – Foods and Refreshments at Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL). In his 22 years at HUL, he led teams across several categories and functions in India, Europe, South East Asia, and Africa to create significant value for the business. Sudhir was appointed to the HUL Management Committee as an Executive Director in 2016, making him one of its youngest ever members. Under Sudhir’s leadership, HUL built up its Foods and Refreshments business as one of the largest in India. This included the USD 5 billion merger and integration of GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare with HUL, the largest deal of its kind in the FMCG sector in India. In his previous roles, Sudhir was instrumental in creating a world-class Tea business for HUL in India and leading HUL’s Soaps business in the country. Sudhir has an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and a B.Sc. in Math with Economics Honours from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai. He is the author of the best-selling book ‘The CEO Factory: Management lessons from Hindustan Unilever’. Sudhir is married to Ketki and spends his free time trying to get his children, Sahaana and Kabir, interested in his own hobbies — tennis, Hindustani music, farming and scrabble. So far to not much avail.

35. Pramod Agrawal

Mr. Pramod Agrawal, an Indian Administrative Service Officer of Madhya Pradesh Cadre 1991 batch, took over as Chairman, Coal India Limited (CIL), the world’s largest coal producing company, on and from 1st February 2020. Prior to the assumption of the top post of the Maharatna coal mining behemoth, he was Principal Secretary, Department of Technical Education, Skill Development & Employment and Department of Labor, Government of Madhya Pradesh. Mr. Agrawal succeeds Mr. Anil Kumar Jha who stepped down as Chairman, CIL on attaining superannuation on 31st January 2020. A Graduate (B.Tech) in Civil Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Mumbai (1986), Shri. Agrawal completed his Post-Graduation in Design Engineering (M.Tech) from IIT, Delhi (1988). Mr. Agrawal received professional training in Project Appraisal and Risk Management from Duke University, Raleigh, USA; Management of Technical Cooperation Projects from ILOTC Turin; Programme on Infrastructure Development and Financing from IIM, Ahmedabad; Infrastructure Planning and Management from IIM, Bangalore; Study on Road Management Policies and Practices from Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne.

36. Falguni Nayar

Falguni Nayar (born 19 February 1963) is an Indian businesswoman and billionaire who is the founder and CEO of the beauty and lifestyle retail company Nykaa. Nayar is one of two self-made female, Indian billionaires. Nayar is now the wealthiest female Indian billionaire with her estimated wealth to the tune of $6.5 billion, after recent listings, and in the top 20 richest people of India. Nayar was born and raised in a Gujarati family in Mumbai, Maharashtra. She is a graduate from Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics and a postgraduate from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. In 1993, Nayar joined Kotak Mahindra Group for 19 years. In 2005, she was appointed as a managing director and exited in 2012. In April 2012, at the age of 50, she founded Nykaa with $2 million of her own money. Nykaa was worth $2.3 billion as of 2021 bringing Nayar’s fortune to an estimated $1.1 billion. Nayar is one of 2 self-made female Indian billionaires, the other being Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw. Nykaa listed at $13 billion on 10 November 2021 making Nayar India’s richest self-made woman and is now among India’s top 20 richest people.

37. Varun Berry

Varun Berry is the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Britannia Industries Limited. Mr. Varun Berry, holds a graduate degree in BE Mechanical from the Punjab University. He has also attended a course in Strategic Management from Wharton University and the Global Leadership Program at IMD, Switzerland. Mr. Varun Berry joined the Company as Vice President & Chief Operating Officer with effect from 1st February, 2013. He has an experience of over 27 years with premier companies like Hindustan Unilever and Pepsico, both in India and overseas and a successful track record in leading start ups, turnarounds, joint ventures and growth businesses.

38. Sunil Mathur

Sunil Mathur is managing director and chief executive officer of Siemens Ltd. Mr Mathur has been with Siemens for over 26 years, holding several senior management positions in Germany and the UK in the energy and industry sectors. Starting his career in the internal-audit team in Delhi in 1987, he moved on to join the business administration group in the energy sector. He became cluster CFO for South Asia in July 2008 and was executive director and chief financial officer of Siemens Ltd from December 2008 to December 2013. During his stint as the CFO of Siemens India, Mr Mathur was part of Siemens AG’s CFO management team, which consisted of the sector CFOs, the heads of the corporate departments and selected country CFOs. Mr Mathur earned a bachelor of science degree from Punjab University and is a chartered accountant (member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India).

39. Vijay Shekhar Sharma

Vijay Shekhar Sharma (born 1978) is an Indian billionaire businessman. He is the founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of financial technology company Paytm. He was ranked as India’s youngest billionaire in 2017 by Forbes with a net worth of $1.3 billion. He has been featured in Time Magazine’s World’s 100 Most Influential People 2017 List. He is the recipient of Yash Bharati, the highest civilian honor of the Government of Uttar Pradesh. In 2020, he was ranked as the #62nd richest person in India, with a net worth of US$2.35 billion, according to Forbes. In 1997, while in college, he started the website indiasite.net, and sold it two years later for $1 million. In 2000, he started One97 Communications which offered mobile content including news, cricket scores, ringtones, jokes and exam results. One97 is the parent company of Paytm, which was launched by Sharma in 2010. Paytm has over 400 million users who make 25 million transactions daily. In 2018, Sharma got Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett to invest $300 million in the company.

40. Neeraj Akhoury

Neeraj Akhoury is the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Ambuja Cement. Mr. Akhoury has a degree in Economics and an MBA from the University of Liverpool. He is an alumnus of the Harvard Business School (GMP) and had studied General Management at XLRI, Jamshedpur. Mr. Akhoury brings with him 25+ years of rich experience in the steel and cement industries. He has worked in leadership roles in India and other emerging markets. He began his career with Tata Steel in 1993 and joined the Holcim Group in 1999. He was a member of the Executive Committee of Holcim India, heading corporate affairs followed by sales. In 2011, he moved to Nigeria as CEO & Managing Director of Holcim AshakaCem PLC. Thereafter, he was appointed as Strategy & Business Development Director for the Middle East & Africa at the a erstwhile Holcim headquarters in Paris. He was also the CEO of Holcim Surma Cement Limited and country representative of Holcim, Bangladesh. Mr. Akhoury was the MD & CEO of ACC Ltd. subsidiary of the Company till February 20, 2020 and presently continues as the Non-Executive director of ACC Ltd.

41. Siddhartha Lal

Siddhartha Vikram Lal (born October 1973) is the Chief Executive Officer of Eicher Motors. He is the son of Vikram Lal, and a former chief executive officer (CEO) and the current managing director (MD) of Eicher Motors, a director of Eicher Goodearth Limited and chairman and MD of VE Commercial Vehicles. Lal is credited with the turnaround and revival of Royal Enfield.  Lal attended the St. Stephen’s College of University of Delhi for a bachelor’s degree in economics in the 1994. Between 1996-1998, he attained a postgraduate diploma in mechanical engineering from Cranfield University, and a master’s degree in automotive engineering from the University of Leeds in England. He joined Eicher Group in 1999, working in various capacities in the Eicher tractor division, and then became CEO of Royal Enfield in 2000 (at the age of 26) aiming to end the unit’s losses. In Jan 2004, Lal was appointed as the chief operating officer (COO) of Eicher Motors. In May 2006, Lal took over as the CEO and MD of Eicher Motors.

42. Abhijit Roy

Abhijit Roy is the Chief Operating Officer of Berger Paints India Ltd. He started his post MBA career in the year 1991. The foundation for his knowledge was laid at BE- Mechanical from Jadavpur University, Calcutta and MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. He started his career with Asian Paints (I) Ltd. After three years in Asian Paints working in Sales in West Bengal based out of Calcutta, Mr. Roy joined Lab Garnier, a division of L’Oreal in 1994 (when they entered India) and was instrumental in launching Ultra Doux shampoo and Synergie brands of Garnier in East India. He joined Berger in the year 1996 as Product Manager for ColorBank Tinting System. He was promoted as the GM Marketing in 2004 where he was responsible for the entire marketing function for Berger Paints Indian operations.

43. Debashis Chatterjee

Debashis Chatterjee (DC) is the CEO and Managing Director of Mindtree. He has over 30 years of experience in the field of IT, spanning customer relationship management, building and managing large business units, strategic alliances, M & A, change management and delivery management across multiple industries, business domains, technologies & geographies. In his earlier role, as President, Global Delivery and Digital Systems and Technology at Cognizant, DC was responsible for delivery of technology services across all industry segments. Additionally, he drove technology excellence as well as global client organizations. As a member of the Executive Leadership Team, he participated in charting the strategic direction of the company. He helped in laying the foundation of Cognizant’s Banking & Financial Services business and grew it to be the largest business within Cognizant.

44. Rajesh Thakur

Rajesh Thakur is the Chief Executive Officer of MothersonSumi INfotech & Designs Ltd. (MIND), a technology and industrial solutions division of the Motherson Group. A multi-disciplinary business leader, Rajesh has been instrumental in establishing MIND’s position as preferred IT services enabler for global enterprises. As the company’s CEO, Rajesh has been spearheading MIND’s technology-led transformation initiatives to help our customers leverage the power of next-gen technologies such as Digitalization, Industry 4.0, Cloud through a strategic and focused approach. His presence has been significant in enabling the global footprint for MIND. Under his leadership MIND has built on legacy strengths while forming strong teams across the globe.

45. Ashish Bharat Ram

Ashish Bharat Ram is the Managing Director of SRF Ltd. in January 2007. Under his leadership, SRF Ltd. has grown into a major global conglomerate with operations in four countries across India, Thailand, South Africa and Hungary. Its businesses cover a diverse portfolio of Fluorochemicals, Specialty Chemicals, Packaging Films, Technical Textiles, Coated and Laminated Fabrics and command a market leadership position, both in India and overseas. Prior to joining SRF Ltd. in 1994, Ashish had successful stints at DCM Toyota Ltd., SRF Finance Ltd., and SRF Overseas Ltd. handling a variety of functions that included Sales, Strategy, Marketing, TQM, among others. Ashish serves as the Regional Chair for South Asia for the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) and is a member of the Northern Region Executive Committee of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). He holds a degree in Economics from Delhi University and an MBA from The Johnson Graduate School of Management, Cornell University.

46. Umang Vohra

Umang Vohra has been Managing Director and Global Chief Executive Officer (MD & GCEO) of Cipla since September 2016. Umang joined Cipla in October 2015 as its Global Chief Financial Officer, and from January 2016 to August 2016 was Cipla’s Global Chief Operating Officer. After gaining degrees in engineering, marketing and finance, Umang was associated with companies such as Eicher Motors and PepsiCo. Prior to joining Cipla, Umang was Head of the North America business for Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories. Through his previous roles in India and the USA, he has built a distinguished career spanning almost two decades with deep understanding and experience in various aspects of the global pharmaceutical business. Under Umang’s leadership, Cipla has built strong momentum in its home markets, augmented its capability, strengthened its core, and shown significant improvement in its operating margin and profitability. At the helm of the Management Council of Cipla, Umang’s big-picture agenda is to define and execute Cipla’s strategic growth roadmap and geographical footprint, identify the next levers of growth, invest in innovation for the future, and build the right organisation. Recognised as an action-oriented industry leader, Umang is a firm believer in the power of agile business models, disruptive technologies, data-driven analytics and a future-ready workforce with a view to shaping the healthcare ecosystem and making a difference to the lives of patients.

47. Hitesh Oberoi

Hitesh Oberoi is the Co-Promoter, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer of Info Edge. Mr. Oberoi’s prior experience includes a 4 year stint with Hindustan Unilever Limited where he last worked as a Regional Planning and Distribution Manager for its Ice Cream Division. With almost 18 years of experience in the internet industry, he is part of various industry forums. He is a charter member of the TiE, New Delhi and also the past Chairman of IAMAI – The Internet and Mobile Association of India. He is also a Founder an on the Board of Trustees of Ashoka University. Along with his partner, Mr. Sanjeev Bikhchandani, he won the Ernst & Young – Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2008 for Business Transformation. He obtained a Bachelor of Technology degree in Computer Science from Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi in 1994 and an MBA from IIM, Bangalore in 1996. At IIM, he featured in the Director’s Merit List.

48. Bhargav Dasgupta

Bhargav Dasgupta is Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer of ICICI Lombard General Insurance Co Ltd. Since he took over the role in 2009, the company has strengthened its position as the country’s largest private non-life insurance firm, consistently delivering long term value to its stakeholders. ICICI Lombard is also the first non-life insurer to be listed on the stock exchanges of India. Bhargav’s philosophy of customer centricity has enabled the company to introduce several ‘best-in-class’ risk management solutions backed by the latest technology platforms to meet the risk mitigation needs of its customers.

49. Sunil A. D’Souza

Sunil Alaric D’Souza is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of TATA Global Beverages Ltd. Sunil D’Souza assumed his role from 4th April, 2020, subsequent to the retirement of Ajoy Misra, who was the former MD & CEO of the Company. Sunil D’Souza priorly was the Managing Director of Whirlpool of India Ltd. His past four years at the helm of this Company have delivered strong growth and industry leading financial returns. Prior to his leadership stint at Whirlpool India, he has served in several leadership roles in Pepsico. During his fifteen year stint in Pepsico, he has handled all commercial aspects of the Company’s foods and beverages portfolio, and has led the business successfully in a large cluster of Asian countries. Sunil began his career at Brooke Bond Lipton India Ltd. in 1993. He has 26 years of rich and varied experience in the consumer goods industry, as well as in-depth understanding of the foods and beverages categories. He brings to bear strong focus on strategy, growth and execution, including inorganic growth, all of which will be important to TGBL as it prepares to enter a new phase of growth and transformation. Sunil is an engineering graduate from the University of Madras, and holds a post-graduate diploma in management from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta.

50. Saugata Gupta

Saugata is the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer at Marico Limited. He responsible for driving the company’s growth and operations both nationally and internationally. He has helped transform Marico into a high performing business with a commitment to sustainable development. In seeking to win amongst consumers, he has taken the company forward in developing top quartile capability and processes while continuing to focus on best in class governance and risk management while driving growth. Saugata joined the company in January 2004 as Head of Marketing and was elevated to CEO of the India business in 2007. In April 2013, Marico restructured its Consumer Product Business (CPB) in India and International Business Group (IBG) under Saugata’s leadership as the CEO of Marico Limited, the unified FMCG business. Thereafter, in March 2014, he was appointed as the Managing Director of the company. Saugata started his career with Cadbury (now Mondelez) where he spent 9 years in various roles in Sales and Marketing in India and the United Kingdom. Subsequently, he went on to become the Chief of Marketing and Group Sales at ICICI Prudential and was part of the startup team that was instrumental in establishing ICICI Prudential as the largest private sector insurance firm in the country.

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