The Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB) has picked Sukla Mistry as the next Director (Refineries) of Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOCL), potentially setting her up for the top post at the country’s largest State-run oil refiner when the present Chairman and Managing Director Shrikant Madhav Vaidya steps down in August 2023.

Sukla Mistry is currently Executive Director and Refinery Head at IOCL’s Barauni refinery, a 6-million tonne (mt) capacity plant built in 1964 with the help of the erstwhile Soviet Union.

She is the only woman to helm a refinery in the country.

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Refinery experience is key to the selection of a candidate to the post of CMD. Both Vaidya and his predecessor Sanjiv Singh were Director (Refineries) before they were elevated to the top post at the company.

Sukla Mistry is a graduate in metallurgical engineering from Bengal Engineering College, Shibpur, Howrah in West Bengal. She joined IOCL’s Haldia refinery as a graduate trainee engineer in 1986, after which she was posted as Inspection Engineer in 1987.

PESB, the government’s head hunter, picked Sukla Mistry after interviewing seven candidates on Wednesday, including six from IOCL, it said on its website.

IOCL is listed in the Fortune Global 500 list of the world's biggest corporations.

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