Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla

Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla is the Chairman of the venerable Indian multinational, Aditya Birla Group. The Group’s legacy dates to over a century and it was the first Indian business group to venture abroad. Today, the group is present in 41 countries across six continents. The Group’s turnover is around $65bn and market cap of listed entities is ~ $100bn.

Mr. Birla chairs the Boards of all major companies of the Group in India and globally. In the 30 years that he has been at the helm of the Group, he has accelerated growth, built meritocracy, and enhanced stakeholder value. In the process he has raised the Group’s turnover by 30 times. He has been the architect of over 60 acquisitions in India and globally, among the highest by any Indian multinational.

Under his stewardship, Aditya Birla Group enjoys a position of leadership in all the major sectors in which it operates, from cement to chemicals, metals to textiles, and fashion to financial services. Over the years, Mr. Birla has built a highly successful meritocratic organisation, anchored by an extraordinary force of 187,000 employees belonging to over 100 nationalities.

Outside the Group, Mr. Birla has held several key positions on various regulatory and professional Boards. He was a Director on the Central Board of Directors of the Reserve Bank of India. As the Chairman of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Committee on Corporate Governance, he framed the first-ever governance code for Corporate India.

He was also the first industry nominee on the board of SEBI. He was Chairman of the Advisory Committee constituted by the Ministry of Company Affairs and also served on the Prime Minister of India’s Advisory Council on Trade and Industry.

Over the years, Mr. Birla has been conferred several prestigious awards. He was conferred the Padma Bhushan, India’s third highest civilian honour in 2023. He was also the first Indian Industrialist to receive the TiE Global Entrepreneurship Award for Business Transformation in 2021. Mr. Birla has been a recipient of the ABLF Global Asian Award in 2019. This marquee award was constituted by the Dubai-based Asian Business Leadership Forum, under the patronage of the UAE Ministry of Economy. He holds the unique honour of being the only Indian industrialist to be named Economic Times Business Leader of the Year three times. In 2023, he was also conferred the ‘Most Respected Entrepreneur of the Decade’ by Hurun India. In addition, he has received several awards and honours from leading institutions like EY, Forbes, CNBC, CNN-News18, WEF etc.

Mr. Birla is deeply engaged with Educational Institutions. He is the Chancellor of the Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS) with campuses in Pilani, Goa, Hyderabad, Dubai and the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. He has been the Chairman of India’s premier management institute — Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA)and Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi (IIT- Delhi). On the global arena, Mr. Birla serves on the governing board of the London Business School.

A firm practitioner of the trusteeship concept, Mr. Birla has institutionalised the concept of caring and giving at Aditya Birla Group. With his mandate, the Group is involved in meaningful welfare driven activities that distinctively impact the quality of lives of more than 11 million people annually.

Accolades conferred on Mr. Birla

Mr. Birla has won recognition for his exemplary contribution to leadership processes and institution/systems building. A selective list:

Honoured with the Global Leadership Award at the USISPF Leadership Summit 2025
Honoured with Lata Deenanath Mangeshkar Award 2025
Honoured with the ‘Business Icon of the Year’ award at Business Today MindRush 2025.
Named ET Business Leader of the Year, 2024
Conferred CA Hall of Fame Award by The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India - ICAI, 2024
Padma Bhushan (one of India’s highest civilian awards) by Government of India, 2023
Global Entrepreneur Award by The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), 2021
ABLF Global Asian Award, 2019
Amity University, Haryana – ‘Doctor of Philosophy (D.Phil.) Honoris Causa’, 2019
CNBC-TV18 – IBLA ‘Outstanding Businessman of the Year 2017’
Frost & Sullivan’s ‘The GIL Visionary Leadership Award’ (Global Innovation Leader) 2017
International Advertising Association’s (IAA) ‘CEO of the Year Award 2016’
Hello Hall of Fame – Business Leader of the Year 2014 (November 2014)
US India Business Council (USIBC) ‘2014 Global Leadership Award’
‘Business Leader of the Year’, the Economic Times Awards for Corporate Excellence, 2012-13
‘Ranked the 4th Most Powerful CEO (2013)’ in the Economic Times’ Corporate India’s Definitive Power listing of 100 CEOs
Forbes India Leadership Award – Flagship Award ‘Entrepreneur of the Year, 2012’
NDTV Profit Business Leadership Awards 2012 – ‘Most Inspiring Leader’
The Degree of Doctor of Science (Honoris Causa) in recognition of his role in ‘Pioneering great engineering products involving multi-disciplinary engineering thought processes in the country’ by the Visvesvaraya Technological University, Karnataka, 2012
NASSCOM’s ‘Global Business Leader Award’ 2012.
CNBC-TV18 India Business Leader Award 2012 for ‘Taking India Abroad’
‘GQ Business Leader of the Year Award - 2011’ from Condé Nast India Pvt. Ltd., an affiliate of Condé Nast Global
‘CNN-IBN Indian of the Year 2010 – Business’, ‘for being the most outstanding business person and making a success out of most businesses including the sunrise sector’, 2010
The All India Management Association’s (AIMA), Managing India Awards 2010 ‘Business Leader of the Year’, 2010
The Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science (Honoris causa) in ‘recognition of his invaluable contribution in the field of business administration’ by the G. D. Pant University of Agriculture & Technology, 2008
‘For the development of technology and also for the involvement in the field of Industries in bringing the country at par with other countries in the field of Industries’, the SRM University in Tamil Nadu conferred the Degree of Doctor of Literature, 2008
The Asia Pacific Global HR Excellence – ‘Exemplary Leader’ Award, 2007
'The Global Indian Leader of the Year’ by NDTV Profit in their Business Leader Awards category, 2007
The Lakshmipat Singhania – IIM, Lucknow ‘National Leadership Award, Business Leader’, 2006
‘The Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year’ Award, 2005
‘Young Super Performer in the CEO Category’ by Business Today, 2005
Chosen by the World Economic Forum (Davos) as one of the ‘Young Global Leaders’, 2004
‘The D. Litt (honoris Causa) Degree’ by The Banaras Hindu University, 2004
‘The Business Leader of the Year’, The Economic Times Awards for Corporate Excellence 2002-2003
‘Businessman of the Year-2003’ by Business India
The National HRD Network, ‘The Outstanding Businessman of the Year’, 2001
The Institute of Directors’ ‘Golden Peacock National Award for Business Leadership’, 2001
Hindustan Times, ‘The Businessman of the Year’, 2001
‘Among the top 10 of India’s most admired and respected CEOs and the top CEO of the coming millennium’, Business World, 1998