AGENTS OF CHANGE: MUKESH D. AMBANI

Mukesh Ambani, the richest Indian and Chairman of India’s largest diversified private sector company Reliance Industries Limited, is credited with transforming India’s energy landscape by commencing the production of gas from D1 and D3 discoveries of KG-D6 block of Krishna Godavari basin located off the East Coast of India, in the shortest time-span ever, of only six and half years after discovery, while the world average is nine-10 years for establishment of similar deepwater facility.

With this landmark achievement, Ambani has not only taken his company to the next level of growth, but also significantly reduced the dependence of India on imports for its energy needs. The KG-D6 block is expected to produce more than 550,000 barrels of oil equivalent a day at its peak production of oil & gas, increasing India’s total indigenous production by more than two times and reduce the annual oil imports bill by about $9 billion.

Mukesh, the elder son of legendary Indian industrialist Dhirubhai Ambani, had got involved in the affairs of the company as early as at the age of 17 years, while he was still in college. After completing his graduation in chemical engineering from the University of Bombay in Mumbai, the financial capital of India, he joined the Stanford University, U.S. for pursuing his Master in Business Administration course. He was about six months away from completing the course, when he had to come back to India in 1981 for assisting his father in the polyester plant.

Since then, Mukesh has steered the company to become India’s largest private sector enterprise and a Fortune 500 company now from a small company in the 1980s. Along with his father, he guided the company in to various fields like petrochemicals, refining of petroleum, oil & gas exploration and production.

Mukesh led the creation of the world’s largest grassroots petroleum refinery at Jamnagar in the west Indian state of Gujarat. In 2002, he changed the dynamics of India’s telecommunication services market by introducing the cheapest call rates in the country through his new venture Reliance Infocomm Limited, the largest mobile services provider on the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) platform. This company is now a part of Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG), which is controlled by his younger brother Anil Ambani. Under the leadership of Mukesh Ambani, Reliance Group ventured in to retail sector also with Reliance Retail Ltd.

He became the first Trillionaire in the country in June 2007.Although more than half of his net worth wiped out in last one year due to a free fall in the stock markets, he is still the richest Indian, in fact richest in Asia. He holds the seventh position on the 2009 Forbes World Billionaire list with a total wealth of $19.5 billion.

Mukesh is the only Indian Chief Executive Officer (CEO) to be a Council Member of World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), a global association of more than 200 international companies. He was conferred ‘ET Business Leader of the Year’ Award by The Economic Times, largest read Indian business newspaper in 2006. He was given ‘Asia Society Leadership Award’ by the Asia Society, Washington D.C., USA, in May, 2004.