Having spent over four decades at L&T, Mr K. Venkataramanan is the perfect insider in every sense.
At 67, he dons a new role of as Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director with which he is intimately familiar with , as he has always been alongside the Chairman, Mr A M. Naik, during his 40-plus years at L&T.
Mr Venkataramanan is in no way old by L&T standards, as the average age for reaching the General Manager cadre was 58 until recently.
“I was there when Hazira started,” he said, adding that the vacancy created by his elevation will have to be filled in a few months' time.
Under his stewardship, L&T Hydrocarbon established its identity in overseas geographies such as West Asia , South-East Asia and Africa.
He also played a key role in spearheading L&T's entry into the Engineering and Construction segment. Mr Venkataramanan strengthened its engineering, procurement and construction value chain and gave it a leg-up in the global arena as an EPC player to contend with.
He is credited with propelling L&T's power business initiative through EPC projects in gas- and coal-based plants. This includes balance of plant work on the domestic front and overseas. His initial thrust ensured L&T's ‘power EPC' business earned an identity of its own as ‘L&T Power Ltd'.
Mr Venkataramanan is a chemical engineer from IIT-Delhi with specialisation in design and engineering. He was the first Asian to become the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Columbia-based ‘Engineering & Construction Risk Institute' . He is the ‘Honorary Fellow' of the UK-based Institute of Chemical Engineers and the second Indian to receive the recognition in the global chemical engineering space.
Mr Venkataramanan has received quite a few prestigious awards and recognitions at the national and international levels. The ‘Davidson Frame Award' was conferred on him by IPMA, Switzerland. He is also an IPMA Level ‘A' assessor. He is the second Indian to receive this title.
Mr Venkataramanan is widely travelled and an avid reader with diverse interests. His wife is a retired Montessori teacher. They have two daughters, one a doctor in the US and the other settled in the UK.