Board of Directors

Mrs. Rajashree Birla

Non-Executive Director

Mrs. Rajashree Birla is an exemplar in the area of community initiatives and rural development. Mrs. Birla chairs the Aditya Birla Centre for Community Initiatives and Rural Development, the Group’s apex body responsible for development projects. She oversees the social and welfare driven work across all the Group’s major companies. The footprint of the Centre’s work straddles over 7,000 villages, reaching out to 9 million people. The Group runs 20 hospitals. The Group reaches out to well over 100,000 students through its network of 52 formal schools and non-formal educational institutes. Of these, girls constitute 50%. Both its hospitals as well as schools are ‘Not For Profit’ institutions. Mrs. Birla is the Chairperson of the FICCI – Aditya Birla CSR Centre for Excellence, Habitat for Humanity (India) and is on the Board of the Asia Pacific Committee as well as Habitat’s Global Committee. She is the Chairperson of FICCI’s first ever Expert Committee on CSR. She is on the Board of BAIF Development Research Foundation, Pune and also served on the Board of Directors of the CSR Committee of SBI Foundation and is a Trustee of the Gujarat Vidyapith. As a patron of arts and culture, she is the President of the “Sangit Kala Kendra”, a Centre for performing arts, as well as the INT-ABCPA (Indian National Theatre-Aditya Birla Centre for Performing Arts). In recognition of the exemplary work done by Mrs. Rajashree Birla, leading national and international organisations have showered accolades upon her. Among these the most outstanding one has been that of the Government of India which bestowed the “Padma Bhushan” Award in 2011 on Mrs. Rajashree Birla in the area of “Social Work”. At the G20 EMPOWER Meet in Ahmedabad, the G20 EMPOWER Award for ‘Lifetime Achievement’ was conferred upon Mrs. Birla. Yet another prestigious award accorded to Mrs. Birla is BRICS ‘Living Legend and Icon for Community Excellence and Lifetime Achievement Award’, bestowed upon her by the erstwhile President, Mr. Ram Nath Kovind. Furthermore, for Mrs. Birla’s unrelenting endeavours towards polio eradication, she was honoured with the much coveted “Polio Eradication Champion” Award by the Government of India. Likewise, the “Global Golden Peacock Award for CSR” was conferred upon her by Dr. Ola Ullsten, the Former Prime Minister of Sweden in Portugal. Among other distinctive awards received by Mrs. Birla, feature the Economic Times’ prestigious Award: Corporate Citizen of the Year, twice in a decade, first in 2003 and again in 2012; the All-India Management Association’s “Corporate Citizen of the Year Award”, the IOD’s “Distinguished Fellowship Award” and the “FICCI FLO Golden Laurel Award”

Ms. Anita Ramachandran

Independent Director

Ms. Anita Ramachandran holds a Master's Degree in Management Studies from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management. She has deep knowledge and experience of about 40 years as a management consultant. She is also one of the first generation of women professionals to become an entrepreneur. Ms. Ramachandran began her career with AF Ferguson & Co. [AFF] (the KPMG network Company in India then) in 1976 as the first woman consultant of the firm.

Ms. Ramachandran founded Cerebrus Consultants in 1995 to focus on HR advisory services, including organisation transformation. Her reputation and innovative work helped her build Cerebrus into a firm with national presence and the firm has worked with over 1000 companies in South Asia. Ms. Ramachandran is known as an authority in reward management in the country. Her wide general management consulting experience have enabled her to be a strategic advisor to many family groups. She also works with several PE firms and start-ups to mentor them through their growth journey.

Mrs Alka Bharucha

Independent Director

Mrs. Alka Bharucha began her career with Mulla&Mulla&Craigie Blunt & Caroe, and joined Amarchand & Mangaldas as partner in 1992. In 2008, she co-founded Bharucha & Partners which, since inception, has been ranked by RSG Consulting, London among the top fifteen firms in India. For years, Alka has been ranked by Chambers Global, Legal 500 and Who’s Who Legal amongst India’s leading lawyers. Alka chairs the transactions practice at Bharucha & Partners. Her core areas of expertise are mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, private equity, banking and finance. Alka has particular experience acting for financial services clients as well as those in the power and logistics sector. She is also actively engaged in representing trans-national corporations for investments in retail, defence and manufacturing space.

Mr. V. Chandrasekaran

Independent Director

Mr. V. Chandrasekaran is a qualified Chartered Accountant and retired Executive Director (Investment) of LIC of India. He has more than three decades of experience in Life Insurance Finance, Housing Finance and Mutual Fund Investment, with adequate exposure to a gamut of Investments.

His areas of expertise include investment decision making; investment monitoring; accounting and investment research; risk management; treasury management; credit appraisal; equity research; and corporate governance.

He is Chairman (Independent) of CARE Ratings Limited. He also serves as Independent Director on the Board of various companies viz. Aditya Birla Housing Finance Limited; eMudhra Limited; Grasim Industries Limited; Tata Investment Corporation Limited; CareEdge Global IFSC Limited, among others.

Mr. K. C. Jhanwar

Managing Director,

UltraTech Cement Limited.

 

Mr. K. C. Jhanwar, managing director of UltraTech Cement Limited, is a veteran of the Aditya Birla Group with a career spanning more than 38 years in the Group. A chartered accountant by profession, Mr Jhanwar joined the Cement business of Aditya Birla Group as a management trainee in 1981.

Within the Group, he has worked across finance, operations and general management roles in the cement and chemical sectors, and has expertise in project management and commercial skills. He also has significant experience in acquisitions and integration. He has been exceptional in his networking and relationship building skills with customers and other stakeholders and has built a strong franchise for the business. He has been a capable team builder and has strong people skills.

Mr. Anjani Kumar Agrawal

Independent Director

Mr. Anjani Kumar Agrawal is a Chartered Accountant, Certified Internal Auditor (Institute of Internal Auditors, USA), Advance Business Strategy (INSEAD), Business Sustainability Management (CISL, Cambridge UK).

Starting as Audit Partner with EY, he handled transactions and valuations, before setting up EY’s Advisory practice in India. With more than 40 years’ experience, of which 26 years as partner at EY, he has worked across most industry verticals.

Mr. Agrawal has been National committee member and speaker at National Industry Associations like CII, FICCI, FIMI, ICC, IIA, IMC etc. He has worked with the Central Government, NiTI Aayog on Policy making and strategy, PM Trophy etc. He is also involved with the social entrepreneurship development space and Impact Investing in India.

Dr. Vikas Balia

Independent Director

Dr. Vikas Balia is a Senior Advocate and a rank holding Chartered Accountant, with a Master’s degree in Mercantile Laws as well as a doctoral research (Ph. D) on Securitization Laws. 

He founded Legalsphere, a full-service law and consulting law firm. 

His expertise extends to handling transactions, conducting due diligences, and providing advisory services, demonstrating a well-rounded approach to legal practice that integrates strategic and practical insights. 

With a background in finance, accounting and law, Dr. Balia possesses a deep understanding of complex financial matters, regulatory requirements, and auditing standards. 

He is director on the boards of several companies, viz. Hindalco Industries Limited; ideaForge Technology Limited; Hasti Petrochemical and Shipping Limited, among others. 

He also mentors a few start-ups.

Mr. Vivek Agrawal

Wholetime Director and Chief Marketing Officer

Mr. Vivek Agrawal is Wholetime Director and Chief Marketing Officer at UltraTech Cement. Mr. Agrawal has spent a major part of his professional career at UltraTech’s Cement Business, holding a number of critical positions. He joined the Group in 1993 as a Zonal Manager in the Cement Marketing Division and went on to hold important positions such as Zonal Head – Grey Cement South; Head, Marketing – Birla White; and Head – RMC Business.

Mr. Agrawal took over as the CEO of the acquired entity Star Cement in 2010 and in October 2013, took on the role of Chief Marketing Officer of the Cement Business. Mr. Agrawal was named an Aditya Birla Fellow in 2017, and was a recipient of the Chairman’s Outstanding Leader Award in 2019. He is a B.E.(Hons.) from NIT Allahabad and MBA from FMS, Delhi. He has done his Advanced Management Program (AMP) from Wharton Business School

Mr. K. K. Maheshwari

Vice Chairman and Non-Executive Director

Mr. Maheshwari has been a long serving member of the Aditya Birla Group, and brings in multi business, multi-geography and multi-cultural exposure, and has held a variety of roles across the Group. A Chartered Accountant by qualification, with around 38 years of experience, of which over 3 decades have been with the Aditya Birla Group, Mr. Maheshwari has built extensive profit and cost centre experience in more than one Business. He scripted the growth of the Group’s VSF Business towards a more competitive and sustainable model, guiding greenfield and brownfield expansions in India and overseas. He has brought in strong execution rigor to his work, and has considerably strengthened both innovation and new products development.