Amalgamations Group arm head passes away

Jayshree Venkatraman, chairman of AMCO, part of Amalgamations Group and daughter of the late A Sivasailam died today in Chennai. Her father and the group's chairman passed away in January. She is survived by her husband Murali Venkatraman and son Sriram Venkatraman.

Company sources said Jayshree died in a private hospital in Chennai due to lung disease.

The board of directors of AMCO had last month appointed her as chairman of the company. She was involved in the affairs of AMCO since 1993 and held various positions. Under her leadership, the company has grown over three times and the turnover last year was Rs 240 crore.

Jayshree took over as chief executive officer of AMCO in 2005, bringing marketing and manufacturing under her control and became its director in 2006. In addition to her current responsibility as chairman, she was a director on the Board of Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited (TAFE) and was a whole-time director of TAFE Access Limited.

AMCO has been a battery company of repute over 55 years. It was the first in India to manufacture train lighting batteries, telephone and telegraphic cells, stationary batteries for power houses, traction batteries and batteries for defence.

For several years, AMCO exported industrial batteries to USSR and Bulgaria. Its later tie-up with Yuasa Corporation, Japan, led to production of two-wheeler and four-wheeler automotive batteries catering to OE segments. In times of vicissitudes and tribulation, Jayshree steered the company for a turn-around with her deep insight into the working of the company, restructuring, analysing and solving the problems to tide over losses and putting the company back to robust health.

Today, AMCO even has a plant in Maduranthagam to produce pocket plate batteries in its plans.

The single prominent achievement of establishing a mighty manufacturing facility for production of batteries in Chennai as a wing of AMCO is eloquent testimony to her managerial abilities and leadership qualities.

She graduated as a rank holder and secured first place for her masters theories in Business Economics for MA and distinction in MBA from International Institute of Management (IIM), New Delhi.