Group President Corporate Branding & Strategic Initiatives, ESSAR Group
Shivnath Thukral recently joined Essar as its Group President, Corporate Branding & Strategic Initiatives. In this position, Shivnath is responsible for strategically reaching out to various stake holders to appropriately position the Essar brand.
Before this, Shivnath spent 14 years in NDTV, India’s largest television news channel. In his last role, Shivnath was the Group Business Editor & Advisor Strategy with NDTV. In his time spent with NDTV, Shivnath gained a rich experience of analyzing Indian businesses, financial markets and economic affairs.
Shivnath was also the Managing Editor of NDTV Profit and instrumental in setting up of NDTV’s business channel. He is among the most trusted faces in business journalism India has produced. With more than 14 years of experience in television as a presenter and a moderator, Shivnath has built a reputation of engaging India’s top CEOs and politicians on the same platform with equal elegance.
Among Shivnath’s biggest interviews are prominent personalities like Ratan Tata, Mukesh Ambani, Anil Ambani, NR Narayanamurthy, Nandan Nilekani, Kumarmanglam Birla, Anand Mahindra, LN & Aditya Mittal, Richard Branson, Vijay Mallya, Arun Sarin, KV Kamath, P Chidambaram, Lalu Prasad Yadav, Praful Patel, Jean Claude Trichet of ECB and Dr YV Reddy of RBI.
Union Minister Of state (independent charge) for Corporate Affairs & Minority Affairs
He is the son of Khurshed Alam Khan and grandson of Dr. Zakir Hussain, the third President of India.
He studied at Delhi Public School, St. Stephen's College, Delhi and St. Edmund Hall, Oxford. He was a Junior Research Fellow and then Lecturer at Trinity College, Oxford.
Career
He was an Officer on Special Duty in the Prime Minister's Office, during the Prime Ministership of Mrs. Indira Gandhi, and was the Minister of State for External Affairs in the Government of India from 1991-1996. During this period he was a Member of Parliament from the Farrukhabad constituency in Uttar Pradesh. He has been the President of the Uttar Pradesh Pradesh Congress Committee twice.
He was also the President of the Delhi Public School Society and Dr. Zakir Hussain Study Circle.
He worked in Atos Origin India Pvt ltd for the period of 1999-2003 as CEO.
In the Parliamentary (Lok Sabha) Elections 2009, he has won the from the Farrukhabad Constituency of Uttar Pradesh with 169351 votes as a candidate of Indian National Congress.
Presently, he is the Minster of State for Corporate Affairs and Minority Affairs (Independent Charge) in the Government of India. He took over as Minister on Friday, 29 May 2009.
Ganesh has been one of the most successful and dynamic professionals in the Indian Information Technology Industry and has been leading Zensar as the CEO for over seven years now, making Zensar one of the most successful IT companies in the country and amongst Fortune’s Top 10 global offshore outsourcing companies from India..
Awards and Recognitions:
Ganesh was named 'CEO of the Year' by the Asia Pacific HR Conference in 1999 and received the Asia HRD Congress Award for Contributions to the Organisation through HR in 2005. Ganesh was also the finalist at the Ernst & Young 2005 Award where he was recognized for exceptional entrepreneurship.Having been a part of two major success stories in IT Training and Consulting earlier, NIIT and APTECH,Ganesh grew the company’s revenues fifty times during his ten year stint as CEO of Aptech and listed it on the Indian and London Stock Exchanges. Ganesh is the National Chair for Confederation of Indian Industries - IT and ITES Committee and a fellow of the Computer Society of India. He also chairs the Higher Education forum of the Confederation of Indian Industries in Western India. He is a memberof the Board of Governors of NITIE Mumbai and member of the Executive Council and Chairmen’s Council of NASSCOM.
Mr. Y.M. Deosthalee is a qualified Chartered Accountant and holds a degree in law. Mr. Y.M. Deosthalee started his career with L&T in 1974. In March 1995, he was appointed on the Board of Directors of Larsen & Toubro Limited as Sr. Vice President (Finance). Today, besides heading the finance function of L&T, Mr. Deosthalee is also responsible for the HR & Personnel function, Risk Management, Mergers & Acquisitions and Shared Services Centre. He was instrumental in promoting the Financial Services business of the Group which currently has 4 distinct entities viz. L&T Finance (incl. micro finance), L&T Infrastructure Finance, L&T General Insurance and the recently acquired Asset Management Company (from DBS Cholamandalam).
He has been named among the Best 3 CFOs, instituted by Economic Times, Economic Intelligence Unit and American Express in 2001, the ‘Best Performing CFO : Engineering & Capital Goods’ by CNBC in 2006 and ‘Best Performing CFO : Capital Goods’ by CNBC in 2007. He is also ranked 3rd best CFO by Finance Asia (Asia’s Best Companies 2009 Awards) in 2009, ‘Best CFO of the Year’ in 2009 and also ‘Best CFO in the Capital Goods Sector’ at the CNBC TV18 Business Leaders Awards.
Mr Deosthalee was appointed Member on the Advisory Committee for Liquidity Management set up by the Finance Ministry and was also the Member of the Takeover Regulations Advisory Committee which has been constituted by SEBI. He is the Co-Chairman of FICCI’s Corporate Finance Committee, a member of the National Council on Corporate Governance on the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and he is a frequent speaker at various high level conferences in India and abroad. He has also contributed to numerous articles on diverse topics in Finance, Economy, Budget Analysis/Discussions, RBI Credit Policy and Corporate Governance.
Senior Managing Director, Blackstone Group and Chairman of Blackstone India
Akhil Gupta is a Senior Managing Director of The Blackstone Group and Chairman of Blackstone India based in Mumbai.
Mr. Gupta manages Blackstone’s private equity operations in India, which has made eight investments or commitments in India. In addition, he provides support for Blackstone’s other businesses, including real estate and advisory services.
Before joining Blackstone, Mr. Gupta served as CEO- Corporate Development for Reliance Industries Limited and Reliance Infocomm Limited. During Mr. Gupta’s tenure, the Reliance group was India’s largest private sector business house with diversified interests in petrochemicals, energy, power, telecom, and financial services. Mr. Gupta’s efforts at Reliance were focused on developing Reliance’s oil & gas, refining, and telecom businesses.
Mr. Gupta began his career at Hindustan Lever, India’s largest multi-national corporation. From 1981 to 1992 he worked in the U.S, first in consulting with Strategic Planning Associates and ICF in Washington D.C., then as Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Krauses Sofa (an integrated retailer and manufacturer of furniture), and after that as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer of Stylus Inc. (another integrated retailer and manufacturer of furniture).
Mr. Gupta received his B.Tech degree in Chemical Engineering, with distinction, from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi in 1973 and an MBA from the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University in 1981.
Mr. Gupta serves on the board of Allcargo Global Logistics, CMS Computers, Emcure Pharmaceuticals, Gokaldas Exports, Intelenet Global Services, SKR BPO Services, MTAR Technologies, and Nagarjuna Construction Co.
Mr. Gupta also serves on the Advisory Board of the Nanyang Business School, Singapore.
