Narotam Satyanarayan Sekhsaria is an Indian industrialists and

philanthropist Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the Public good (economics), public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private goo ...

Early life

Born in Chirawa Rajasthan, India in a traditional Marwari trading family in 1950, he was brought up in Bombay and was educated as a chemical engineer from the city's prestigious University Department of Chemical Technology (UDCT), now known as Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai.

Career

He started his career at his family business, predominantly trading cotton. He subsequently switched career in the early 1980s, giving up trading to set up

Ambuja Cements Ambuja Cements Limited, formerly known as Gujarat Ambuja Cement Limited, is a major Indian cement producing company. The Group markets cement and clinker for both domestic and export markets. Partnership The company had entered into a strategi ...

. Over the next decade, Mr Seksharia built

into one of the world's most efficient, profitable, and greenest cement companies. It was among the earliest companies in India to develop its own captive sea-ports and use sea transportation to ship cement across the country and abroad.

went on to acquire a stake in

ACC Limited ACC Limited (Formerly The Associated Cement Companies Limited) an Indian cement producer, headquartered in Mumbai. It is a subsidiary of Ambuja Cements and a part of the Adani Group. On 1 September 2006, the name of The Associated Cement Compan ...

, then India's best known and geographically speaking, the largest cement company. In 2005, Mr Sekhsaria, then still in his 50s, did something unthinkable among family-controlled businesses in India. He divested his interest in Ambuja Cements and ACC Ltd. and ceded control to

Holcim Group The Holcim Group, legally known as Holcim Limited, (formerly known as LafargeHolcim) is a Swiss multinational company that manufactures building materials. It has a presence in around 70 countries, and employs around 72,000 employees. Holcim op ...

, the Swiss multinational cement giant. Mr Sekhsaria continues to be the non-executive chairman of

and

. Mr Sekhsaria is the chairman of Ambuja Cement Foundation, which he set up as part of Ambuja in the early 1990s and has since grown to become one of India's most extensive corporate CSR programs. It does work in the areas of rural development through agriculture, health, education, skill-building and women's empowerment initiatives. He is also the Chairman of the Narotam Sekhsaria Foundation, the philanthropic arm of his family office, which funds and supports individuals and organisations working in health, education, livelihoods, governance, art and culture. Publication: The Ambuja Story
Publisher
HarperCollins

References

External links

* Businesspeople from Mumbai Rajasthani people Indian businesspeople in cement Year of birth missing (living people) Indian philanthropists Indian art collectors Engineers from Maharashtra Institute of Chemical Technology alumni Living people {{India-business-bio-stub