Rahul Dhir aged 42 was born in Delhi completed his BTech from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and later he completed his MS from the University of Texas at Austin; and an MBA from Wharton Business School in Pennsylvania.Rahul started his career as an oil and gas reservoir engineer before moving into investment banking in the year 1994. He has worked at SBC Warburg, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch where he managed a team advising several major oil companies and a number of independent E&P companies on merger and acquisition and capital market related issues.He worked as a managing director and co-head of Energy and Power Investment Banking at Merrill Lynch before the time of entering Cairn India(in may 2006) whichoperates the largest producing oil field in the Indian private sector having a world-class resource base, with interest in 15 blocks in India .Cairn India has pioneered the use of cutting-edge technology to extend production life..

   Rahul Dhir worked hard and proved himself by meeting the expectations of Cairn’s management.As Rahul’s career itself shows his specialist experience of world energy markets and skills in international banking he has taken Cairn India team to greater heights as an oil and gas investment destination.Rahul Dhir joined the Group in May 2006 and was appointed as Chief Executive of Cairn India on 22 August 2006.In this regard Rahul Dhir said:
“It is a privilege to lead Cairn’s business in India. The assets are truly outstanding and the company has a very professional organisation in place across the country. It will be very exciting to create a new and thriving business from this unique platform. Given the positive developments in the Indian economy and investor interest in India I believe Cairn India is in the right place at the right time to create a growing world class business headquartered in Delhi.”

            Cairn India is headquartered in Gurgaon on the outskirts of Delhi, with operational offices in Chennai, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan.On 9 January 2007, Cairn successfully concluded the flotation of its Indian business with the commencement of trading of Cairn India Limited on the Bombay Stock Exchange and the National Stock Exchange of India. Cairn Energy PLC currently holds a 65% shareholding in Cairn India Limited.Cairn is the biggest investor in Rajasthan and the whole idea of the new strategy is now to Indianise the management here as well.It is  now trying to expand the business model to development and production. Cairn Energy has done a pre-IPO placement, which was a pretty largish one.According to the view of Rahul Dhir ,actually the reason for selecting this is that pre-IPO placement is a tremendous endorsement of their business and of course the valuation of the company itself. The company  has raised over USD 800 million from a collection of investors- Petronas being the main industry investor followed by Videocon.He believes that the Indian businessess are sending a message which is very supportive of Cairn India and its prospects.
 

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