Sanjiv Goenka

Sanjiv Goenka
Residence	Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Nationality	Indian
Occupation	Chairman of RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group
Net worth	US$1.3 billion
Religion	Hinduism
Spouse(s)	Preeti Goenka
Children	Avarna Goenka and Shashwat Goenka
Parent(s)	Dr. Rama Prasad Goenka

Sanjiv Goenka is the chairman of RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group which has an asset base of over INR 32,000 crore (over US$ 4.8 billion). The Group has over 50,000 employees and over a hundred thousand shareholders with annual revenues of up to INR 16,000 crore (US$ 2.5 billion). Alongside being the chairman of CESC Limited, he also has under his wing, companies like Firstsource Solutions Limited, Isgn Solutions (US mortgage division) Philips Carbon Black Limited, Spencer's Retail and Entertainment major Saregama Limited. Besides, he is also the co-owner of ISL football club, Atlético de Kolkata. The new IPL team, Rising Pune Supergiants is also owned by Sanjiv Goenka's New Rising. On 20 May 2015, Mr Sanjiv Goenka was honoured with the highest civilian honour from the West Bengal, ‘Banga Bibhusan 2015’ by the Hon’ble Chief Minister of the State, Mamata Banerjee and the Governor of West Bengal, K. N. Tripathi. Mr. Goenka has been the youngest-ever President of Confederation of Indian Industries (CII). A past Chairman of the Board of Governors, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur, he is also a former President of All-India Management Association (AIMA). Currently he is Chairman of International Management Institute (IMI) which has campuses in Delhi, Kolkata and Bhubaneswar. Mr Goenka is presently a Member of the National Foundation for Corporate Governance set up by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India. He was also a Member of the CII National Council on Corporate Governance and Regulatory Affairs for the year 2013-14.

Early life

Sanjiv is the younger son of Rama Prasad Goenka (RPG), effective founder of the RPG Group. He grew up in Kolkata and graduated from St. Xavier’s College. He then began assisting his father and elder brother Harsh in running the family business empire. In the mid-1980s, Sanjiv's parents arranged for him to marry a girl of suitable family, belonging to his own Agarwal community, and he duly married Preeti. They are now the parents of two children,

Inheritance

The Goenka family belongs to the Marwadi community of money-lenders and tradesmen, and hails originally from Rajasthan in western India. As early as the 19th century, an enterprising member of the family, Ramdutt Goenka, set up base in Kolkata, which was then the capital of India, and a major commercial hub of the British Empire. The family prospered in its traditional vocations of money-lending and trade. It was in the 1970s that Rama Prasad Goenka (b.1930) leveraged the family's wealth to take over a variety of industries and corporates and thus create a ready-made business conglomerate. Many of these corporates were stressed due to the socialistic policies and the "License-Raj" then prevalent in India, and others were in the marked due to disagreements within the families of their owners. In a series of takeovers, RPG acquired such companies relatively cheap and used his financial resources and business acumen to make them viable. In this way, by the end of the 20th century, RPG had cobbled together a significant business empire. The Goenka business empire is remarkable for two things: firstly, the fact that none of their major ventures were founded by them, all being take-overs; and secondly, the resultant diversity and incoherence of these companies.

In 2010, Rama Prasad 'RP' Goenka formally divided his business empire (which by then enjoyed a revenue of Rs. 16,000 crores) between his two sons, Harsh and Sanjiv. The following major companies fell to Sanjiv's share:

1. CESC Limited (an electricity generation company)
2. Spencer's Retail (a chain of retail stores)
3. Phillips Carbon Black (which produced Carbon Black)
4. Saregama (formerly HMV India, a music & media company)
5. One part of Harrisons Malayalam (which owns rubber and tea plantations in south India).

Career and achievements

Mr Sanjiv Goenka, oversees his Group of companies in the Power & Natural Resources, Carbon Black, IT & Education, Retail, Media & Entertainment and Infrastructure sectors.

Other activities

Goenka, a former member of the Prime Minister’s Council on Trade & Industry, is now serving as Chairman of the Board of Directors of Woodlands Medical Centre Ltd., a premier hospital located in Kolkata, where he has received the title of Honorary Consul of Canada.^[1]

In 2009-10, Sanjiv Goenka became president of the All India Management Association (AIMA).^[1]

Goenka is currently behind the Asia Institute of Power Management (AIPM) to train power-sector service professionals in collaboration with Singapore Power, and the International Management Institute (India) of Bhubaneswar, and Kolkata, a management school located in New Delhi. He was chairman of the Board of Governors of Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.

Goenka became President of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in April 2001, the youngest ever President of CII at 39 years of age. At 41, he was appointed Chairman of the Board of Governors of Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (IIT-KGP), succeeding his father.

Personal life

Goenka is the younger son of the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group's Chairman Emeritus, Late Dr. Rama Prasad Goenka, Sanjiv Goenka is married to Preeti. They have a daughter, Avarna, and a son, Shashwat.

References