Kumar takes over as MRPL MD

H Kumar has taken over as the Managing Director of Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (MRPL).

"He took over from Vishnu Agrawal, Director Finance, who held additional charge as Managing Director since August 1, 2014, post superannuation of P P Upadhya," the company said in a statement here.

Prior to this, Kumar was Executive Director, Corporate Strategy & Planning, at Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd (HPCL).

Government headhunters Public Enterprise Selection Board (PESB) had on January 22 selected Kumar to head MRPL upon retirement of P P Upadhya.

After approval of the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), orders for Kumar heading MRPL were issued on August 7.
 

Upadhya retired on July 31 and Kumar was to take over from August 1 but his appointment had got delayed.

Pending this, Vishnu Agrawal, Director (Finance) at MRPL, was given additional charge of Managing Director of the company.

State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) holds 71.63 per cent stake in MRPL, which operates a 15 million tonnes a year oil refinery at Mangalore. HPCL has 16.96 per cent stake in the company.

"Kumar, an honours mechanical engineer from Calicut University, trained in Advanced Management strategies from IIM Kolkatta, brings to the table over 3 decades of professional experience across the entire gamut of petroleum functions while serving in one of India's foremost Oil PSU - HPCL," the statement said.

As Executive Director - Corporate Strategy and Planning, HPCL, he successfully steered many tie-ups including the joint venture for a 9 million tonnes refinery-cum-petrochemical complex at Barmer, Rajasthan and a 5 million tonnes LNG import terminal at Chhara in Gujarat.