Birla group picks UltraTech and Grasim successors from within

K K Maheshwari would be the next managing director of UltraTech Cement

Kumar Mangalam Birla-promoted UltraTech Cement and Grasim Industries have found their successors from within the group. Aditya Birla Group flagship UltraTech Cement said K K Maheshwari would be the next managing director of the company when incumbent O P Puranmalka retires at the end of the current financial year.

Maheshwari is at present the managing director of parent Grasim Industries. The company had acquired UltraTech in 2004 in one of the largest acquisitions in the sector. Subsequently, Grasim de-merged its cement business into UltraTech in July 2010.

The merger created the largest cement company in India with UltraTech Cement boasting a capacity of 63.15 million tonnes a year. Maheshwari, a chartered accountant by profession, has 38 years of experience. He has held various leadership roles spanning finance and general management, according to a notification by the company to the exchanges.

Maheshwari will remain on the Grasim board as a non-executive director and will be succeeded by Dilip Gaur as the next managing director. Gaur is currently deputy managing director at UltraTech Cement. He has resigned from this role effective March 31, 2016.

“While we like to expand the responsibilities of executives as they grow, we also like to ensure it should not become a challenge,” says Santrupt Misra, director (group human resources) at Aditya Birla Group on change of companies for the top executives for the new roles. UltraTech Cement had standalone turnover of Rs 22,936 crore in FY16, while Grasim reported sales of Rs 6,332 crore.