Ajit Narain Haksar (11 January 1925 – 19 May 2005) was the first Indian chairman of ITC Limited and was voted the Chairman Emeritus of the company. He has received the 'Outstanding Industrialist Award' and the 'Udyog Rattan Award.'

Early life

Ajit Narain Haksar was born on 11 January 1925, in Gwalior to a

Kashmiri Kashmiri may refer to: * People or things related to the Kashmir Valley or the broader region of Kashmir * Kashmiris, an ethnic group native to the Kashmir Valley * Kashmiri language, their language People with the name * Kashmiri Saikia Barua ...

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

family. He was educated at the Doon School and subsequently at Allahabad University. He then did an MBA at

Harvard Business School Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA p ...

ITC

Haksar joined ITC in 1948, and was made Marketing Director in 1966. By 1968, Haksar was made Deputy Chairman and was then instated as chairman in 1969. He retired from ITC in 1983 after 34 years with the company, and was succeeded by his brother-in-law,

Jagdish Narain Sapru Jagdish Narain Sapru (16 November 1933 – 8 May 2007) was an Indian businessman. He was the former chairman of ITC Limited, BOC India, DIC India (Formerly Coates of India), Nicco Park, and the Indian Chamber of Commerce. He was also the pr ...

. Haksar was known as the chairman who first took ITC out of purely the tobacco industry and into hotels and paperboards.

Family life

Haksar is survived by his two children and their spouses, four grandchildren and their spouses, and six great-grandchildren.

References

* Autobiography, ''Bite the Bullet: Thirty-four Years with ITC'', New Delhi, India: Viking, Penguin Books India, (1993) 536 p.
Obituary at Rediff News
{{DEFAULTSORT:Haksar, Ajit Narain 1925 births 2005 deaths Kashmiri people The Doon School alumni Harvard Business School alumni