Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla is the Chairman of the 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 $67bn and market cap of listed entities is ~ $112bn.
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 33 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 227,500 employees.
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.