Achievement: Chairman of the Aditya Birla Group; Vhosen as
Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year - India in 2005
Kumar
Mangalam Birla is the Chairman of the Aditya Birla Group. The group is
India's third largest business house. Major companies of Aditya Birla
Group in India are Grasim, Hindalco, UltraTech Cement, Aditya Birla Nuvo
and Idea Cellular. Aditya Birla Group's joint ventures include Birla Sun
Life (Financial Services) and Birla NGK (Insulators). The group also has
its presence in various countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia,
Philippines, Egypt, Canada, China and Australia.
Born on June 14,
1967, Kumar Mangalam Birla spent the early of his life in Calcutta and
Mumbai. He is a Chartered Accountant and did his MBA (Masters in Business
Administration) from the London Business School, London. Kumar Mangalam
Birla took over as Chairman in 1995, at the age of 28, after sudden demise
of his father, noted industrialist Aditya Birla, after whom the group is
named.
When Kumar Mangalam Birla assumed the mantle at the Aditya
Birla Group, Doubts were raised about his ability to handle a giant
business house with interests spanning viscose, textiles and garments on
the one hand and cement, aluminium and fertilisers on the other. But Kumar
Mangalam proved his skeptics wrong. He brought in radical changes, changed
business strategies, professionalised the entire group and replaced
internal systems. Kumar Mangalam reduced his group's dependence on the
cyclic commodities sectors by entering consumer products.
Under
Kumar Mangalam Birla's leadership, the Aditya Birla Group, apart from
consolidating its position in existing businesses, also ventured into
sunrise sectors like cellular telephony, asset management, software and
BPO.
Kumar Mangalam Birla also holds several key positions on
various regulatory and professional boards, including chairmanship of the
advisory committee constituted by the ministry of company affairs for 2006
and 2007, membership of the prime minister of India's advisory council on
trade and industry, chairmanship of the board of trade reconstituted by
the union minister of commerce and industry, and membership of the Central
Board of Directors of the Reserve Bank of India.
Kumar Mangalam
Birla has won several honors. Major among them include The Business Leader
of the Year (2003) by The Economic Times, Business Man of the Year - 2003
by Business India, and The Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year -
India in 2005.
