Alfa Laval Head Lila Poonawalla Calls It Quits

The high-profile chairperson of Alfa Laval India, Lila Poonawalla, has stepped down from the top post of the company and resigned as director of the company too.

In an emotionally charged address to the annual general meeting of the shareholders, Poonawalla said, "Its been a beautiful experience for me. I have been the CMD of the company not only as an Indian, but also as a woman and I got to this position of competitive world meeting all challenges of life."

The 55-year-old Poonawalla made a history of sorts in the Indian corporate world by becoming probably the first woman chairperson and managing director of a listed company: Alfa Laval India in 1987. Under her leadership, Alfa Laval India made stupendous growth mainly coming from the booming brewery and distillery businesses and the export market.

 

Poonawalla joined the company (then called Vulcan Laval) in 1967 as a trainee engineer apprentice. She soon rose the ranks to become export manager in 1978 and later as CMD in 1987. A major part of the exports of the company came from the erstwhile Soviet Union. With the break-up of the Soviet Republic and the prolonged recession in the domestic engineering sector, the company's fortunes were badly hit.

She has remained as a mere figurehead since Alfa Laval India went into red, sometime in 1995. Brian Goggin was sent by the parent company to salvage the local unit and was made the MD of the company.

"Since Tetra Laval is in the process of divesting of the Alfa Laval group, it has been considered appropriate to cut the links with the present owners, thereby allowing the new owners to structure the business in their own way.

Poonawalla has left her position as chairperson of the board of Alfa Laval India, but she will keep her position as chairperson of Tetra Pak and DeLaval," Jos Bellinkx, senior advisor, Alfa Laval Group and the new chairman of Alfa Laval India said.