Tuesday, 7 December 2010

Men behind top Indian tycoons' success - Anil Ambani's chief strategist - Amitabh Jhunjhunwala

Behind every successful Indian promoter is a strong CFO -- or, a second-in command -- who has been key to a company's success: PMS Prasad at Reliance Industries, Amitabh Jhunjhunwala at R-ADAG, Tarun Jain at Vedanta, Ravi Nedungadi at UB Group, Venkatesh Babu at Lanco Infratech, Issac George at GVK Group, NK Jain and Seshagiri Rao at JSW, and A Subba Rao at GMR Group, to name a few.

They have some of the sharpest minds in the country, helping their companies raise money at rates that are often cheaper than those at which governments borrow.The key attributes of such a person: a blend of character and competence; leadership, people and networking skills.


 Amitabh Jhunjhunwala

Anil Ambani's chief strategist in the Ambani brothers' battle over the Reliance empire is known for his sharp financial acumen. Jhunjhunwala is a key member of Anil's leadership team and vice-chairman of Reliance Capital Ltd, with primary responsibility for the financial services and media & entertainment businesses.A chartered accountant, Jhunjhunwala rose to become treasurer of the undivided RIL, and along with RIL CFO Alok Agarwal, drove its impressive fund-raising exercises. He quit RIL in 2005 and became Anil's spokesperson.

When the Reliance-ADA Group was formed, he helped Anil raise money and sew-up deals like Adlabs and AMP Sanmar. He was a key strategist in the gas dispute case, working closely with J P Chalasani. Recently, he was instrumental in forming joint ventures with major US companies, including Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks Studios and CBS. He is married to Tapoti, and has one son, Abhinav.

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