Bharat Entrepreneurs

 Anand Mahindra who completed his arts and management in the year 1981, from Harvard Business School, Boston and graduated from Harvard  university, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Magna cum Laude (High Honours) is the Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Mahindra Group. Soon after completing his degree in arts and management in the year 1981 he returned to India joined Mahindra Ugine Steel Company Limited(MUSCO), the country’s foremost producer of speciality steels, as Executive Assistant to the Finance Director. Anand Mahindra selected  the ways that suited him the most rather than betting on methods which he was uncertain of. This commendable trait was recognized and so he was made the Deputy Managing Director of the company and was appointed as President in 1989. This stint at MUSCO played a prominent role which lead to diversification of Mahindra Group into following areas:

*Real estate development

*Hospitality management

                      Later in 1991 he entered the company as a Deputy Managing Director of Mahindra & Mahindra Limited, the country’s dominant producer of off-road vehicles and agricultural tractors.His efficiency proved that M&M Ltd is not a family run company but a professionally run organisation which turned to be fruitful to Long term investors.In April 1997, he was appointed Managing Director of Mahindra & Mahindra Limited and in January 2003 given the additional responsibility of Vice Chairman.

                          Later  in collaboration with the Indian Manufacturer M&M, the French Car manufacturer Renault has set up a joint venture to build and sell the Logan in India. Mahindra is also setting up another joint venture with the American LMV- Manufacturer Navistar to make LMVs  and small buses.The US $4.5 billion Mahindra Group is among the top 10 industrial houses in India. M&M is the only Indian company among the top four tractor manufacturers in the world and is the market leader in multi-utility vehicles in India.At present Anand is the key person in management of Harvard Business School and serves as the member of Advisory Board in Microsoft India.Apart from these he is the member of Asia Business Council, International Enterprise Singapore - 2nd India Advisory Panel, National Sports Development Fund (NSDF) etc.,

Achievements and Accolades:

1)CEO of the Year from India Brand Summit 2006

2)‘Knight of the Order of Merit’ by the President of the French Republic

3)2005 Leadership Award from the American India Foundation for his, and the Mahindra Group’s commitment to corporate social responsibility

4)CNBC Asia Business Leader Award and India Business Leader Award for the year 2006

5)NDTV Profit Car & Bike Award 2007 for Automobile Man of the Year

Popularity: 10%

Arun Sarin an India-born United States citizen, born in October 21, 1954 in Pachmarhi in Madhya Pradesh is the CEO of Vodafone Group Plc, the United Kingdom based global mobile operator.In 1975 Sarin, completed his B.Tech degree in Metallurgical Engineering from IIT-Kharagpur and later in 1978  he gained a Master in Science (Engineering) and a Masters in Business Administration from  Haas School of Business affiliated to University of California, at Berkeley in 1978.He started his career as a management consultant before moving, in 1984, to the Pacific Telesis Group in San Francisco.Arun Sarin has served in many executive positions in his 20 year career in telecommunications and following is the list of his executive positions in sequence:

*Director of AirTouch from July 1995

*President and Chief Operating Officer of AirTouch (February 1997- June1999)

*CEO for the Vodafone United States and Asia Pacific region until 15 April 2000 and then he became non-executive director.Being in this position he also served as  chief executive of Info Space(2000-01), and of Accel-KKR Telecom based in San Francisco(2001-03).

* Director of The Gap, Inc., The Charles Schwab Corporation and Cisco Systems, Inc.

*Non-executive director to the Court of the Bank of England (effective from june 1, 2005) is for a fixed 3 year term.  

                 He focused on emerging markets such as India, Turkey,and Romania instead of developed markets such as Japan and others. Under his leadership, Vodafone successfully bid U$11.1 billion for 67% stake in the Indian mobile operator,Hutchison Essar. Currently, Sarin is keeping himself busy focussing the company on total communications services including broadband, Internet and wireless data. Sarin will be retiring from Vodafone immediately after the company’s AGM on july 29, 2008 when he will be succeeded by current Deputy-CEO Vittorio Colao. He leaves the Vodafone post with a full-year profit of a whopping 6.6 billion pounds and Vodafone is reaping the rewards of its move into emerging markets like India, which has supported the company’s growth rate in an upright position.

Popularity: 8%