KM Birla rejigs chairman's office, elevates 2 new principal executive assistants
24 July, 2014 | The Economic Times
ShareSabarinath M
The Economic Times
24 July 2014
Mumbai: Aditya Birla group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla has increased the importance of the chairman's office by roping in two new principal executive assistants who will monitor the performance and chalk out a strategy.
The 47-year-old Birla has elevated Rohit Pathak and Indu Jacob as principal executive assistants, departing from the earlier structure of one principal executive assistant and his team managing the entire office. The chairman's office assists Kumar Mangalam Birla in strategic planning and monitoring of the group's businesses. Pathak and Indu will have different responsibilities according to the new arrangement.
KM Birla has also made some changes in the group's top management
- D MUTHUKUMARAN
Head of corporate finance, will move as the CEO of the private equity business. He played a key role in several mergers and acquisitions including Hindalco's buyout of Novelis - ASHISH ADUKIA
Head of M&;A at Morgan Stanley, will be the new head of corporate finance - BHARAT BANKA
till recently was the head of private equity business, he is expected to get a larger role shortly
(with inputs from Arijit Barman)
- ROHIT PATHAK
former McKinsey exec &IIM-A grad, was a part of Prashant Gupta's team - INDU JACOB
a management graduate from Booth School of Business has been elevated from the corporate strategy team
Prashant Gupta, who, till recently, moved to head the e-commerce project, had been managing the chairman's office for the past three years. He was roped in from McKinsey in 2010 as the $40-billion group braced fresh set of challenges emanating from a growing global exposure.
Pathak, 38, a former McKinsey executive who completed his management studies from IIM-A, was a part of Gupta's team.
Indu Jacob, 38, who did her management from Booth School of Business, Chicago, is moving to the new position from the corporate strategy team, which tracks the business environment and evaluates opportunities for acquisitions. For the first time in its 60-year-old history, the group has given opportunity for a woman to manage the chairman's office. "This clearly shows thegroup's commitment towards diversity" said a person close to the development.
Before joining the group, the executive worked in global banks such as ANZ and Merrill Lynch. Indu represents the growing brigade of women who have risen to the top management cadre at one of the country's biggest conglomerates. There are 100 women at the level of assistant VP and above at the group. The group has 3,863 women employees in the management cadre, representing 12% of the total management cadre.
That's a dramatic rise from the 1% women in the total management cadre of 5,000 when Kumar Mangalam Birla took charge in 1995-96.
