Vodafone Idea Limited announced the appointment of Kumar Mangalam Birla as Additional Director (Non-Executive and Non-Independent) on the company’s Board, with effect from April 20, 2023.
According to the company’s exchange filing, “it is hereby informed that based on recommendation of Nomination and Remuneration Committee, the Board of Directors of the Company has, at its meeting held today, appointed Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla, as an Additional Director (Non-Executive and Non-Independent) with effect from 20 April 2023.”
Kumar Mangalam Birla is the Chairman of the Indian multinational Aditya Birla Group, which operates in 36 countries across six continents. He is a Chartered Accountant and holds an MBA degree from the London Business School.
Birla chairs the Boards of all major Group companies in India and globally including Novelis Inc., Birla Carbon, Aditya Birla Chemicals, Domsjö Fabriker, Terrace Bay Pulp Mill, Hindalco Industries Ltd., Grasim Industries Ltd., UltraTech Cement Ltd., Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd. and Aditya Birla Capital Ltd.
He has been the architect of over 40 successful acquisitions by the Group in India and abroad, the highest by any Indian multinational. Key acquisitions include Aleris Corporation, Novelis, the second largest acquisition ever by an Indian company, Columbian Chemicals, Domsjö Fabriker, CTP GmbH – Chemicals & Technologies, Jaypee Cement, Binani Cement, Larsen & Toubro’s cement division, Indal from Alcan, Madura Garments, the Chlor Alkali division of Kanoria Chemicals and Solaris Chemtech Industries. Birla has restructured the businesses to emerge as a global leader in the sectors in which the Group operates. Under his stewardship, 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.
Under his leadership, in 2020, Aditya Birla Group was recognised as among the Forbes World’s Best Employers 2020. In 2018, it was also recognised as ‘The Best Employers to work for in India’ by AON – Hewitt. The Group topped Nielsen’s Corporate Image Monitor 2014-15 and emerged as the Number 1 corporate, the ‘Best in Class’, three times in a row.
Outside the Group, 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. 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. As the Chairman of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Committee on Corporate Governance, he authored the First Report on Corporate Governance that crafted foundational principles of corporate governance. Its recommendations were path breaking and became the basis of corporate governance norms. Furthermore, as the Convener of the Prime Minister’s Task Force on Administrative and Legal Simplifications, the extensive recommendations made by him in his report, have been implemented in totality. Mr. Birla also served as the Chairman of SEBI’s committee on Insider Trading which formulated corporate governance principles for Indian corporates. Mr. Birla is also the first Industrialist to be conferred Honorary membership by the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI). He is on the National Council of the Confederation of Indian Industry and the Apex Advisory Council of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India.
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. Mr. Birla is Chairman, Governing Council of BITSoM, a new age business school based in Mumbai.
On the global arena, Birla serves on the London Business School’s Asia Pacific Advisory Board and is an Honorary Fellow of the London Business School. In 2019, Birla constituted a £15 million scholarship programme at the London Business School in memory of his grandfather, B.K. Birla, marking the largest ever endowed scholarship gift to a European Business School.
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