with leading international corporations. The most notable of these ventures are Hettich India Private Ltd.- a joint venture with the Hettich Group of Germany , Texmaco UGL Rail Private Ltd – a joint venture with the United Group of Australia and MCA Phosphates Pte Ltd.- a joint venture with Mitsubishi Corporation, Japan. Mr. Poddar was also instrumental in promoting Gillette India Ltd., a venture with the renowned ‘The Gillette Company,’ USA and was its Founder Chairman since 1984, before relinquishing the position in Dec.2013.

Mr Poddar is the Chairman of Zuari Agro Chemicals Limited, Zuari Global Limited, Chambal Fertilisers & Chemicals Limited, Paradeep Phosphates Limited, Texmaco Infrastructure & Holdings Limited, Texmaco Rail & Engineering Ltd., and Adventz Investments And Holdings Limited and is also on the Board of Lionel India Limited.

A gold medalist in Commerce from Calcutta University, Mr. Poddar is an aficionado of art,culture and sports and is involved in their promotion and development. Mr and Mrs Poddar promote young cricketers to go abroad for training and practice He is also a recipient of the Rashtriya Samman award from the Central Board of Direct Taxes. A keen collector of contemporary Indian art , Mr Poddar has a superb collection of modern Indian masters . The Poddars are currently involved in setting up a museum in Delhi with the theme ‘India through the ages’. The museum, to be named after Mr Poddar's father in law, the late Dr K K Birla as ‘K K Birla Academy’, will be fully funded by the family and is to be commissioned in the coming years.

Mr. Poddar has served as President of FICCI and International Chamber of Commerce in India, and has been appointed by Govt of India on the Board of Trade - the highest body on trade – as well as on the Court of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Mr Poddar has also served as a member of the Board of Governors of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur for over 10 years and on the local Board of the Reserve Bank of India for a similar period. He was also on the Advisory Board of one of the most reputed investment brokers, Messrs N M Rothschild & Sons (India) Pvt Limited.

Mr Poddar is the Chairman of India-Saudi Arabia Joint Business Council and is a Member of the Indo-French CEO Forum..

He started his career with Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers Ltd, Trombay, before moving to Zuari Agro Chemicals Ltd in October 1982. He worked in Zuari Agro Chemicals Limited from 1982 to 2014 in various capacities in Plant Operations. He was appointed as Vice President- Manufacturing & Unit Head of Paradeep Phosphates Ltd from December 2014 to August 2017. He was Chief Technical Officer for Adventz Group Fertilizer Business from September 2017 to January 2019. He served as Chief Operating Officer of the Company from January 2019 before taking charge as Executive Director.

He has participated in the 3 Tier Middle Management Programme for Management Development at IIM-Ahmedabad from January 20-February 16, 2008.

The Adventz group believes in empowerment of farmers and securing interests of all stakeholders. The Group Companies have won awards for practicing best CSR Activities, taking care of community services hand in hand with commercial activities and to conserve the environment. Mr. Akshay Poddar serves as Director on the Board of Group Companies. The Group Companies include Mangalore Chemicals and Fertilisers Limited, Texmaco Rail & Engineering Limited, Adventz Securities Enterprises Limited, Texmaco Infrastructure & Holdings Limited, Adventz Investment Company Private Limited, Adventz Finance Private Limited, Adventz Homecare Private Limited, Touax Texmaco Railcar Leasing Private Limited. Mr Akshay Poddar is an alumnus of the London School of Economics & Political Science, University of London and graduated with Honours in Accounting & Finance in 1999. Mr. Akshay Poddar is also associated as a Member with Indian Chamber of Commerce, Kolkata, Young Leaders Forum (YLF), The Indus Entrepreneurs etc. to name a few.

He is Vice-President of one of the top 10 B Schools in the country. He was appointed by RBI as a member of the Padmanabhan Committee set up to review RBI's supervision over Banks. He was a member of the Central Council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and Chairman of the Auditing Practices Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

Mr. Amandeep is a professional with 30 years of experience, the last 17 years spent in leadership positions in HR, Corporate Affairs, managing P&L as CEO, Corporate Development and as managing director. He has partnered with the promoters of a conglomerate in its transformation from a family run organization to a value based professionally driven organization. He successfully made the transition from an HR role to general management about 10 years back. His last assignment was managing director and CEO of a diversified business group of approx. 5300 Cr Turnover, after being the director and CEO of a Rs. 4000 Cr Cement business.

He has worked for close to 14 years with Dalmia Bharat Group and has played a key role in the journey of the group from 500 Cr turnover to 12000 Cr.

He has served on the Boards of 8 companies, two of them listed on the BSE.These companies range from a size of Rs. 5000 Crore revenues to a transportation start up, in sectors ranging from manufacturing to software services, to logistics, to ecommerce. He has been chairman of Audit Committee and various other committees of the board. He is a qualified Independent Director.

He has successfully managed large bank balance sheets and ensured its rotation through successful structured transactions with various Commercial Banks and Development Financial Institutions. His areas of expertise includes Commercial Banking, Corporate Credit Risk, Profit & Loss Management, Business Leadership and Strategic Planning.

He is also on the Board of Mirae Asset Financial Services (India) Private Limited and Wonne Advisory Services (OPC) Private Limited. He has worked in various positions in DBS Bank, Mumbai including Managing Director & Head Institutional Banking Group and Branches – India and Sr. Vice President and Head Enterprise Banking Group (MM and SME) – India. and during his tenure of more than 12 years he was involved in structuring the Corporate Bank and its processes which resulted in significant increased presence of DBS Bank in India. He also successfully set up the SME and Midmarket Corporate businesses for DBS Bank in India. Prior to DBS Bank he held the position of Vice President & Regional Manager West, Corporate Bank & Country Head Liabilities – India at Credit Lyonnais and also held various positions in G.E. Capital Services India in Corporate coverage and Credit Risk functions.

He has a demonstrated track record of building businesses, developing appropriate strategies, plans, systems and processes and running operations. He possesses a deep understanding of the regulatory landscape and business risks. He has worked with L&T, Vedanta Group, IDFC, AES Corp., Shamil Bank and ICICI Limited previously. Presently, Mr. Shahab is the Managing Director of Zuari Industries Limited (Formerly known as Zuari Global Limited)

Mr. Shahab has made significant contribution to development of credible policy frameworks for private sector participation in infrastructure in India and has also assisted PM’s Taskforce on Infrastructure. He has played important policy advocacy role at CII and FICCI as a Member of their respective National Committees on Infrastructure including chairing the CII Committee on Highways for several years. He is also a member of CII National Committee on Power.