- Group Chairman - GMR Group
G M Rao, 57, a mechanical engineer by profession, is the founder Chairman of GMR Group, a leading infrastructure developer in the country. The Group is well diversified and professionally managed with focus on business verticals of Energy, Urban Infrastructure and Highways including SEZ, Airports and Agri-business.
Born on July 14, 1950 in a small town of Rajam in the Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh, G M Rao established the GMR business empire starting from a single jute mill in Rajam in 1978.
A visionary businessman, G M Rao recognised the huge business potential in entering the infrastructure space, with the opening up of the power sector in the 90s in India. Within a span of a decade, he successfully established three greenfield power plants in the country, one each in the state of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh Pradesh. Under his guidance, the Group is now developing several power projects in various parts of the country.
G M Rao expanded the Group's presence in the infrastructure sector by leading the Group's foray into Roads, The Group has already completed two greenfield road projects and four more projects are under various stages of implementation. Realising that Airports will drive the economy in the 21st century, G M Rao spearheaded the Group's entry into the high profile airport business. Under his leadership the Group is developing the new greenfield International Airport at Hyderabad, and is modernising and restructuring the Delhi International Airport. While the new Hyderabad Airport will commence operations by March 2008, the first phase of Delhi Airport will be commissioned by 2010 in time for the Commonwealth Games.
Under G M Rao's visionary leadership, the Group bagged its first global project by winning the bid to modernise the Sabiha Gokcen International (SGA) airport at Istanbul, Turkey and also ventured into the new business sector of Urban Infrastructure. The Group will set up a 3300 acre multi-product SEZ in Krishnagiri District of Tamil Nadu.
G M Rao has today successfully established GMR Group, as one of the leading infrastructure organisations in the country. His commitment to the core infrastructure sector has resulted in the Group exiting some of the highly lucrative businesses of banking, insurance, breweries and jute. Rao was the largest shareholder in the country's leading 75-year-old private sector Vysya Bank, which has been successfully transformed into a modern technology driven and hugely successful financial enterprise. For his visionary approach and outstanding contribution to ING Vysya Bank for a period of two decades as its Director and Chairman, the Bank in September 2006 conferred on him the status and title of 'Chairman Emeritus'.
He was chosen as the 'Entrepreneur of the year' at the Economic Times Awards for Corporate Excellence 2006 - 07 this year. The award has been given to him in recognition of his exemplary entrepreneurial spirit and potential in breaking into the big league of top infrastructure organizations in India.
Besides infrastructure, the other focus area for the GMR Group is Agri-business. The Group already has a sugar plant in Andhra Pradesh Pradesh and is coming up with another in the state of Karnataka. The existing plant provides livelihood for over 25000 farmers from 500 villages of the region in one form or the other.
With a strong desire to serve the needs of the marginalized sections and the rural society, Rao set up the GMR Varalakshmi Foundation, to raise their living standards. The Foundation is active in the areas of education, health and hygiene, community development and empowerment of rural youth.
To face the challenges of tomorrow and meet the future needs of a fast developing country like India, G M Rao has laid a strong emphasis in building a transparent and system driven organization. While a set of seven core values define the GMR Group's distinct organization culture, Rao has also spearheaded a "Family Constitution" model for the group. The aim of this is to ensure a smooth transition of business from generation to generation, and enable professionals to discharge their rightful roles in the growth and development of the Group. In line with this, over a period of time, the members of the family would provide only the strategic inputs and investment needs and counseling for all the businesses and activities of the Group.
G M Rao's thrust is on combining the best of entrepreneurial spirit with a dynamic team of professional managers who work in an enabling and vibrant organisational culture, to sustain and consistently meet his vision for the Group of 'Building Entrepreneurial organisations that make a difference to society through Creation of Value'.
- Chairman Airports
Mr. Kiran Kumar Grandhi entered the family business in 1996 at the age of 21 and formally joined the Group as its Director in 1998. He has since worked on key, strategic assignments which were crucial in transforming GMR Group into a leading infrastructure power-house of the country. These include driving the strategic tie-ups with PSEG Global Inc. for Tanir Bavi Power Project, life insurance joint venture with ING and Vysya Bank (that the company has exited), joint venture with Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad for GMR Hyderabad International Airport (GHIAL) project and with United Engineers of Malaysia for bidding the Golden Quadrilateral projects.
He also played a significant role in helping the Group bag two of the annuity road projects at competitive rates benchmarked by the industry. His next major contribution came by way of enabling the Group to emerge as the preferred bidder and subsequently the developer of the Greenfield GMR Hyderabad International Airport.
Kiran is also MD – GHIAL and Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL). He is responsible for the launch of the new Greenfield, world class international airport in Hyderabad on 23rd March 2008 and completing the brand new international airport in Delhi in time for the Commonwealth games in 2010. That apart, as Chairman – Airports Business, he is also heading the Group’s Airport Business Development division and Aviation SEZs
- Chairman - Urban Infrastructure and Highways
With over 22 years of wide ranging experience, Srinivas Bommidala hails from a business family with interests in Agriculture, FMCG and Services Sector. During this period, Bommidala played a monumental role in establishing new projects in the above mentioned business sectors fastidiously.
At GMR he led the Group's foray into the infrastructure sector and played an instrumental role in setting up the Group's first power project - the GMR Power Corporation Pvt. Ltd., (GPCL) in 1998.
Under his leadership, the Group's third Greenfield power project, a 388.5 MW combined cycle gas turbine power project at Vemagiri was successfully completed.
B Srinivas as MD DIAL, has led the development of the project through its various stages and ensuring it is well on track for the timely launch. Importantly, he has succeeded in creating a strong team of proven professionals. As Chairman - Urban Infrastructure and Highways he is responsible for the Highways sector, Property, Construction and SEZ businesses (excluding Aviation SEZs).
- Chairman Energy and Agri-business
An engineering graduate, B.V.N Rao has 13 years of experience in the banking sector with specific experience in Industrial Finance and Rehabilitation of sick industries. He is an expert in foreign exchange and international trade.
B V N Rao is presently Group Director of GMR Group. He has also assumed his new role as Chairman Energy and Agri - Business (the sugar and manufacturing business) of the Group.
Dato' Seri Ahmad Bin Abdul Majid is currently the Managing Director of Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB). He holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree (Honors) in International Relations from Malaysia. He has over 30 years of experience in the airline industry, having worked for companies such as the Malaysian Airline System Berhad (MAS) from June 1972 to November 2001. He retired as the Executive Vice-President, Airline from MAS.
Prior to joining MAHB, he was Aviation Advisor to the Ministry of Transport, Malaysia.
- Member Group Holding Board
K. Balasubramanian has close to 40 years of experience in International Banking. During his 25 years with American Express, he held senior positions in Marketing, Credit and General Management in several Asian and European countries. He served as Country Head for Korea, India and Nepal and the Chief Credit Officer for the Asia - Pacific region and Indian subcontinent. He was subsequently with ING Vysya Bank as the Managing Director and CEO.
Now, at GMR Group, Mr. K. Balasubramanian is Member GMR Holding Board. He supports the Chairman in driving initiatives on strategic reviews, Foundation projects and other institution building measures. His responsibilities also include overseeing the GMR Varalakshmi Foundation, leadership development and mentoring senior leadership team in achieving their business targets.
Mr. I Y R Krishna Rao, IAS, has been nominated as Director on the Board of the company by the Government of Andhra Pradesh. He presently is the Principal Secretary to Government of Andhra Pradesh, Finance Department.
Mr. I Y R Krishna Rao is an economist and is from the Indian Administrative Service of 1979 Batch. He is a post graduate in economics and also did M.Sc in Agriculture Economics, at University of East Anglia, Norwich, ENGLAND.
Prior to this assignment, he was Principal Secretary, Finance (R&E) dealing with Recruitment Policy and Resource Mobilisation.
Dr. Manmohan Singh, IAS, has been nominated as Director on the Board of the company by the Government of Andhra Pradesh. He presently is the Secretary to Government of Andhra Pradesh, Infrastructure and Investment Department.
Dr. Manmohan Singh, IAS is from the Indian Administrative Service of 1985 Batch. He is a post graduate in Veterinary Science and also did MBA in Public Service, at University of Birmingham, United Kingdom.
Prior to this assignment, he was Vice-Chancellor, at Sri Venkateswara Veterinary University, Tirupati.
Ms. Anna Roy, has been nominated as Director on the Board of the company by the Airports Authority of India. She presently is the Director, Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA), handling all PPP Projects in Airport development.
Ms. Anna Roy is an economist and is from the Indian Economic Service. She is a post graduate in economics from the Delhi School of Economics.
Prior to her association with the MoCA, she was working with the Ministry of Finance dealing with policy and other sectoral issues relating to power, pharmaceutical, telecom, highway and civil aviation. She has also worked on mega infrastructure projects in these sectors and also policy issues in context liberalising these sectors.
Mr. V P Agrawal has been nominated by the Airports Authority of India on the Board of Directors of the company. Mr. V P Agrawal is currently the Member (Planning) at Airports Authority of India.
Mr. V P Agrawal, belong to the Indian Engineering Services and has his Masters in Engineering (Power Electronics & Electric Drivers) from IIT Roorkee.
Mr. V P Agrawal's association with the Airports Authority of India (AAI) started in the year 1990, when he took charge as its Superintending Engineer. He held various positions during his 16 long years of association with the AAI, including that of:
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Addl. General Manager-Central Head Quarters, |
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Airport Director-Srinagar Airport, |
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General Manager-Northern Region, |
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Regional Executive Director-North Eastern Region |
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Regional Executive Director-Northern Region |
Prior to his association with the AAI, Mr. V P Agrawal worked with the Central Public Works Department, for 12 years, at various positions.
Prof. Rigas Doganis is a renowned aviation consultant and strategy adviser to airlines, airports, banks and governments. He is Chairman of the prestigious European Aviation Club in Brussels. In September 2003, he was appointed to the Board of South African Airways as a non-executive Director.
He graduated from the London School of Economics (LSE). He carried out postgraduate studies in air transport at the Sorbonne in Paris and at the LSE. This was followed by a Doctorate in Air Transport also at the LSE. He is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society.
He is also Visiting Professor at the College of Aeronautics, Cranfield University and former Chairman/CEO of Olympic Airline in Athens.
Mr.R.S.S.L.N Bhaskaradu, is a Director on the Board of the company. Mr.Bhaskaradu holds engineering degree in Electrical and has a history of remarkable accomplishments and effective management and leadeship skills spanning 43 years in the industry.
He has served over 21 years at Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited. During his tenure in BHEL he was involved in the development and implementation of large power projects all over the country.
He has served for 16 years at Maruti Udyog Limited (MUL). He held the post of Managing director of Maruti Udyog Limited. His involvement with MUL had been since its inception and he had played a keyrole in the organisation's good performance and achievement results since 1983.
He has also served as a Member/Chairman of the Public Enterprises Selection Board of the Government of India.
Mr. K Brahmananda Reddy, IRAS, Special Secretary to Government of Andhra Pradesh, Infrastructure and Investment Department, is an Alternate Director to Dr. Manmohan Singh, IAS, on the Board of the company, representing the Government of Andhra Pradesh.
Dato Abd. Hamid bin Mohd Ali is an Alternate Director to Dato' Seri Ahmad Bin Abdul Majid. He currently is the Senior General Manager of Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad.
- Chairman Corporate and International Business
Raju, entered the family business, GMR Group, in 1996 at the age of 22. Through these years, he has held key portfolios in various GMR Group companies.
Initially he played a crucial role in shaping the overall strategy and positioning of the organisation. He then took on the development and implementation of various projects of the Group. He was instrumental in installing India's first and the world's largest floating barge mounted power plant - GMR Energy Ltd., Mangalore.
He successfully steered the Group's foray into the Roads Business and the Group is now one of the leading road developers of the country.
Raju as Group CFO, also led the Group, through GMR Infrastructure's maiden IPO in 2006.
As Chairman - Corporate and International Business he is responsible for Human Resources, Strategic Finance, Corporate & Strategic Planning (CSPD), Central Procurement and Corporate Communications functions of the Group. He is also responsible for the International Business Division, Sabiha Gocken airport and other Corporate functions such as Corporate IT and Corporate Integration to name a few.
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