Yogesh Deveshwar

Chairman of the Advisory Council

Mr Yogesh Chander Deveshwar is the Chairman of ITC Limited, one of India’s most valuable companies in the private sector. Under his leadership, ITC has evolved into a leading multi-business conglomerate with a market capitalisation of around $45 billion and a turnover of $7 billion. ITC’s businesses span Fast Moving Consumer Goods (Branded Packaged Foods, Personal Care Products, Cigarettes, Lifestyle Retailing, Education and Stationery Products, Incense Sticks and Safety Matches), Hotels, Paper, Paperboards and Packaging, Agri Business and Information Technology.

An alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and Harvard Business School, Mr Deveshwar joined ITC in 1968. He was appointed as a Director on the Board of the Company in 1984 and became the Chief Executive and Chairman of the Board on January 1, 1996. Between 1991 and 1994, he led Air India as Chairman and Managing Director.

Mr Deveshwar is a Director on the Central Board of the Reserve Bank of India. He is a Member of the National Integration Council, Board of Trade, the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council and the Committee for Reforming the Regulatory Environment for Doing Business in India constituted by the Government of India. He is also a member of the Board of Governors of the Indian School of Business and the former Chairman of the Society and Board of Governors of the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta. He serves on the National Executive Committees of some of India’s premier trade and industry bodies, and has been a member of the US-India CEOs Forum and the UK-India CEOs Forum instituted by the Governments of the respective countries. Mr Deveshwar is a Past President of the Confederation of Indian Industry.

Mr Deveshwar has given expression to ITC’s Sustainability philosophy by fashioning corporate strategies that not only enhance shareholder value but add significantly to the development of natural and social capital. He has led ITC to become the only company in the world, of comparable dimensions to be ‘carbon positive’, ‘water positive’ and ‘waste recycling’ positive. The company’s businesses and associated value chains generate sustainable livelihoods for over 5 million people, many of whom represent the poorest in Rural India. The pioneering farmer empowerment initiative, ITC e-Choupal, is today the world’s largest rural digital infrastructure and is a case study at the Harvard Business

School besides receiving several global awards including the inaugural World Business Award instituted by the United Nations Development program (UNDP), International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the HRH Prince of Wales International Business Leader’s Forum. ITC was also conferred the World Business and Development Award 2012 at the historic Rio+20 United Nations Summit for its Social and Farm Forestry Programmes.

In 2011, Mr Deveshwar was conferred the Padma Bhushan, one of the highest civilian awards in the country, by the Government of India in recognition of his distinguished service of a high order to the Nation. He has been ranked by the Harvard Business Review as the 7th Best Performing CEO in the world in its January-February 2013 edition. Amongst several other awards and recognitions during his distinguished career, Mr Deveshwar has been honoured with the Global Leadership Award by the US-India Business Council of the US Chamber of Commerce in 2010, the Business Leader of the Year Award from All India Management Association in 2012, Business Person of the Year Award 2006 by the UK Trade & Investment, and the Sustainability Leadership Award 2007 conferred at Zurich at the International Sustainability Leadership Symposium. He was inducted to the prestigious Hall of Pride at the Indian Science Congress in 2006. Earlier, he was also named Manager Entrepreneur of the Year 2001 by Ernst & Young.