Ramabadran Gopalakrishnan (born 25 December 1945) is an Indian businessman and author. Until his retirement he was an executive director of Tata Sons Ltd and served on the boards of

Tata Power Tata Power Company Limited is an Indian electric utility company based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India and is part of the Tata Group. The core business of the company is to generate, transmit and distribute electricity. With an installed electri ...

Tata Technologies Tata Technologies Limited is a company in the Tata Group that provides services in engineering and design, product lifecycle management, manufacturing, product development, and IT service management to automotive and aerospace original equipme ...

AkzoNobel Akzo Nobel N.V., stylized as AkzoNobel, is a Dutch multinational company which creates paints and performance coatings for both industry and consumers worldwide. Headquartered in Amsterdam, the company has activities in more than 80 countries, ...

India, Castrol India and ABP Pvt. Ltd. Before joining Tata he was Vice Chairman of

Hindustan Lever Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) is a consumer goods company headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is a subsidiary of Unilever, a British company. Its products include foods, beverages, cleaning agents, personal care products, water purifi ...

, the Indian subsidiary of

Unilever plc Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy drink, ...

. Gopalakrishnan earned a bachelor's degree in Physics from St Xavier's College,

Calcutta University The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a public collegiate state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered one of best state research university all over India every year, C ...

, a bachelor's degree in Electronics from

IIT Kharagpur Indian Institute of Technology Kharagpur (IIT Kharagpur) is a public institute of technology established by the Government of India in Kharagpur, West Bengal, India. Established in 1951, the institute is the first of the IITs to be established ...

in 1967 and did a six-week Advanced Management Programme from

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 ...

, United States. He has lived and worked in India, the UK and Saudi Arabia. He began his career in 1967 as a computer analyst with

. He worked in the marketing function before moving to general management. During his years with

Unilever Unilever plc is a British multinational consumer goods company with headquarters in London, England. Unilever products include food, condiments, bottled water, baby food, soft drink, ice cream, instant coffee, cleaning agents, energy drink, t ...

, he was based in

Jeddah Jeddah ( ), also spelled Jedda, Jiddah or Jidda ( ; ar, , Jidda, ), is a city in the Hejaz region of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the country's commercial center. Established in the 6th century BC as a fishing village, Jeddah's pro ...

as CEO of the Arabia unit; later, he was managing director of

Brooke Bond Brooke Bond is a brand of tea owned by Ekaterra, formerly an independent tea-trading and manufacturing company in the United Kingdom, known for its PG Tips brand and its Brooke Bond tea cards. History Brooke Bond & Company was founded by Ar ...

Lipton Lipton is a British brand of tea, owned by Ekaterra. Lipton was also a supermarket chain in the United Kingdom, later sold to Argyll Foods, after which the company sold only tea. The company is named after its founder, Sir Thomas Lipton, who fo ...

India and then vice-chairman with Hindustan Lever. He has been president of the

All India Management Association All India Management Association (AIMA) is the national apex body of the management profession in India. A not for profit, non-lobbying organisation, working closely with Industry, Government, Academia and students to further the cause of the m ...

. He is married and has three children.

Publications

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References

External links

R. Gopalakrishnan
at

Penguin India Penguins ( order Sphenisciformes , family Spheniscidae ) are a group of aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: only one species, the Galápagos penguin, is found north of the Equator. Highly adapt ...

1949 births Living people St. Xavier's College, Kolkata alumni University of Calcutta alumni Tata Group people IIT Kharagpur alumni Indian chief executives {{India-business-bio-stub