Dr. U D Choubey, CMD, GAIL receives "Corporate Role Model" Award

Management students should get rural stints: Dr. Choubey; Dedicates award to employees and GAIL.

Dr. U. D. Choubey, Chairman and Managing Director, GAIL (India) Limited, has been given the Corporate Role Model Award. The award was given by Amity University during its INBUSH 2009 event.

While accepting the award, Dr U. D. Choubey said that this award should be for GAIL and its 3500 employees who have made it an organization to be proud of. He said he considered it a privilege to head an organization like GAIL. He also said that if we wish to see a prosperous and strong India, we must ensure the spread of wealth to the innermost parts of the country and emphasized the need for management students to have rural stints. “If students are to contribute to the resurgence of the nation and wealth creation, they have to understand the realities of India,” he added. The University accepted the suggestion and agreed to hold four week camps in rural areas for its management students.

Dr. Choubey has a number of awards to his credit; including the Distinguished Fellowship Award of Institute of Directors (IOD), the prestigious Graduate School of Business & Administration, Top Rankers Excellence Award and the ‘Pragya Puraskar’.

Dr U. D. Choubey, CMD, GAIL has pioneered the concept of 3 Cs i.e. Cooperation, Collaboration and Competition and it has become a mantra for success in hydrocarbon industry. Dr. U.D. Choubey is the first oil and gas CEO to ask the industry to follow a collaborative rather than confrontationist approach. This view is now echoed by all the leading industry players.

During the last two years under his leadership, GAIL has initiated several new projects aimed at consolidating its premier position in the industry. This includes the doubling of company’s transportation network from the existing 7,000 km to about 12,000 km by 2011. GAIL has also announced the plans to expand its presence in Petrochemicals with 2 mega projects one each in India and abroad. He has also proposed the concept of CNG corridors which would not only reduce pollution as well as costs, but also help reduce the subsidy by replacing liquid fuels to the corresponding substituted degree.

Under his leadership, GAIL (India) Limited has taken a major step in Corporate Governance by constituting an Ethics Committee of the Board. The Ethics Committee will deal with all aspects of ethics in the Company and suitably evolve its procedures. Ethics Committee shall work as conscience keeper and submit to the Board any recommendation for best corporate governance in the Company.

GAIL (India) Limited has also embarked upon a course to implement the Integrity Pact in all its major procurement as a Corporate Governance initiative under the MoU signed with Transparency International India (TII). The Integrity Pact Programme focuses at enhancing operational transparency in the contracts and procurements process of the Company. GAIL is among the first few Indian corporates to introduce ‘Integrity Pact’ in procurement and contracts. Integrity Pact is a tool devised by TII worldwide to fight corruption in public procurement. The Integrity Pact now forms part of GAIL tender documents and comes into effect from the moment bidders signs the IP while bidding for any tender in GAIL. GAIL has put in place the requisite working mechanism to ensure successful implementation of IP.

Dr. U.D. Choubey is a Post Graduate in Chemistry, MBA in Marketing and holds a Law degree. He holds a Ph.D. in "Hydrocarbon Derived from Coal and Petroleum" from ISM Dhanbad. Dr. Choubey has over 30 years of experience in Energy Sector particularly in Natural Gas and also in Fertilizers & Chemicals. He has authored a book titled "A Text Book on Natural Gas". He has presented papers at several International Gas Conferences and chaired sessions in the international prestigious conferences/seminars.