Santrupt Misra to head chemicals business too at Birla group

MUMBAI: The Aditya Birla Group appointed Santrupt Misra to oversee its chemicals business, adding to his responsibilities of leading group human resources and the Carbon Black operations at the Kumar Mangalam Birla-led conglomerate.

Misra will assume his third position starting April 1. He is taking over from KK Maheshwari, the former managing director of Aditya Birla Chemicals who moved to lead the group’s UltraTech Cement business two years back.

Misra said there will be no trouble managing three portfolios at the group, which shuffles, expands and sharpens responsibilities of senior management frequently. “I have very stable and competent teams at HR and Carbon Black. They know the deliverables, quality standards, professionalism expected. Once the expectations are set, life becomes easier,” Misra told ET.


“It (giving him another responsibility) has nothing to do with paucity of senior talent.” The $43 billion conglomerate also hired Kalyan Madabhushi from Shell as the business head of the chemicals sector. Madabhushi, formerly the global general manager for chemicals at Royal Dutch Shell, will report to Misra, who was one of Kumar Mangalam Birla's earliest hires and has been with the group for 22 years now.

“We had not decided who would be looking after for a longer term. We took some time to decide it. Birla asked me to oversee the chemical sector, so I accepted it,” Misra said. Aditya Birla Chemicals makes bulk and speciality chemicals and viscose filament yarn. The business is spread across 16 manufacturing locations in four countries: India, Thailand, Germany and China. Its India business was merged with Grasim in 2015.