Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla is the Chairman of the venerable Indian multinational Aditya Birla Group. The Group’s legacy dates to over a century and it was the first Indian business group to venture abroad. Today, the group is present in 36 countries across six continents with over 50% of its revenues coming from overseas operations. The Group’s turnover is around $60bn.
Mr. Birla chairs the Boards of all major Group companies in India and globally. In the 27+ years that he has been at the helm of the Group, he has accelerated growth, built meritocracy, and enhanced stakeholder value. In the process he has raised the Group’s turnover by 30 times. He has been the architect of over 40 acquisitions in India and globally, among the highest by any Indian multinational.
Under his stewardship, the Aditya Birla Group enjoys a position of leadership in all the major sectors in which it operates, from cement to chemicals, metals to textiles, and fashion to financial services. Over the years, Mr. Birla has built a highly successful meritocratic organisation, anchored by an extraordinary force of 180,000 employees.
Outside the Group, Mr. Birla has held several key positions on various regulatory and professional Boards. He was a Director on the Central Board of Directors of the Reserve Bank of India. As the Chairman of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Committee on Corporate Governance, he framed the first-ever governance code for Corporate India. He was Chairman of the Advisory Committee constituted by the Ministry of Company Affairs and also served on the Prime Minister of India’s Advisory Council on Trade and Industry.
Over the years, Mr. Birla has been conferred several prestigious awards. He was conferred the Padma Bhushan, India’s third highest civilian honour in 2023. He also received the All India Management Association’s coveted Business Leader of the Decade Awards in 2023. Mr. Birla is only the second industrialist in AIMA’s history to receive this honour. He was also the first Indian Industrialist to receive the TiE Global Entrepreneurship Award for Business Transformation in 2021. Mr. Birla has been a recipient of the ABLF Global Asian Award in 2019. This marquee award was constituted by the Dubai-based Asian Business Leadership Forum, under the patronage of the UAE Ministry of Economy. Mr. Birla has also received the Business Leader of the Year Award twice at the Economic Times Awards for Corporate Excellence. In addition, he has received several awards and honours from leading institutions like EY, Forbes, CNBC, CNN-News18, WEF etc.
Mr. Birla is deeply engaged with Educational Institutions. He is the Chancellor of the Birla Institute of Technology & Science (BITS) with campuses in Pilani, Goa, Hyderabad, and Dubai. He has been the Chairman of India’s premier management institute — Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. On the global arena, Mr. Birla was an Honorary Fellow of the London Business School. In 2019, Mr. Birla constituted a £15mn scholarship programme at the London Business School in memory of his grandfather, Mr. B.K. Birla, marking the largest ever endowed scholarship gift to a European Business School.
A firm practitioner of the trusteeship concept, Mr. Birla has institutionalised the concept of caring and giving at the Aditya Birla Group. With his mandate, the Group is involved in meaningful welfare driven activities that distinctively impact the quality of lives of more than 10 million people annually.