Who We Are

Mr. Akshay Poddar

Chairman

Mr. Akshay Poddar holds Honors in Accounting and Finance from London School of Economics and Political Science, University of London

Over 14 years of track record of promoting and managing businesses in diversified industries like fertilizers, agri-inputs, heaving engineering, sugar, consumer products, real estate, investments and furniture etc.

Mr. Prasanna

Independent Director

Mr. Prasanna has served in executive positions for over 30 years, most of it as CEO, MD, Executive Chairman and grown companies to leadership position in Information Technology, Healthcare, Education and Life Science sectors. His contribution in Wipro where he was Vice Chairman was in strategy and developing high talent teams. He was CEO of GE Medical in South and SEA and helped GE become number one by creating markets through frugal innovation. In Manipal Group he raised aspiration levels and saw the group achieve high rank in the fields of Education and healthcare. He served GE in Asia and USA and contributed to its global competitiveness

His entrepreneurial foray was in the field of Pharmaceutical services As the lead investor and CMD, he built a Clinical Research Organization(CRO) which brought new drugs market in stem cells, medical devices biologics and generics This CRO became leading Indian clinical CRO with highest reputation for quality and speed and had operations in 27 countries in Europe and Asia.

He has served as an Independent Director on the Boards of Shasun Pharma, Take Solutions, Four Ways Healthcare PLC, served as Chairman of GE-BEL, Ecron Acunova GmbH, as Director on GE Yokogawa Japan, GE-Samsung Korea, Manipal Gp, Manipal Hospitals, Manipal University and is reputed for contributing to strategies & building new stakeholders. He served as an independent Trustee on Shriram Ownership Trust the apex organization of Shriram group.

He served on Public Policy advocacy organizations like Center For Policy Research for over a decade. He has mentored startups and portfolio companies of international funds. He is strategic Advisor to InnAccel, a leading med-tech accelerator.

He has served as Chairman of Association of CROs . He is member of: Vision Group on Biotechnology, Karnataka; Biotechnology National Council and Pharmaceutical National Council of CII (Confederation of Indian Industry). He has mentored CEO and woman with potential to serve on Board of Directors

He has deep interest in Public Health, Education, History and has currently several initiatives in these fields.

He is an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad & GE Business Leadership Program at Crotonville.

Mr. Nitin M Kantak

Whole-Time Director

Mr. Nitin M. Kantak is Bachelor of Chemical Engineering from Institute of Chemical Technology (formerly UDCT), Mumbai. Has participated in the 3 TP Middle Management Programme at IIM-Ahmedabad. Mr. Kantak has about 41 years of experience in nitrogenous and phosphatic Fertilizer Industry in plant operations, process engineering, project management, commissioning, procurement and general management.

He started his career with Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers Ltyd, Trombay in August 1981 as Management Trainee, before moving to Zuari Agro Chemicals Ltd in October 1982. He worked in Zuari Agro Chemicals Ltd from 1982 to 2014 in various capacities in Plant Operations and rose to the position of Chief General Manager-Operations. He worked as Vice President- Manufacturing & Unit Head of Paradeep Phosphates Ltd, Paradeep, Orissa from December 2014 to August 2017. He was appointed as Chief Technical Officer of Adventz Group, Fertilizer Business from September, 2017 to January, 2019. He served as Chief Operating Officer of Zuari Agro Chemicals Ltd. from January 2019 till July, 2020 and as Group HR Head from September 2020 till May 2022.

He was appointed as Executive Director on the Board of Zuari Agro Chemicals Ltd since September 2020. He was appointed as Non-Executive Director on the Board of Mangalore Chemicals & Fertilizers Ltd effective 1st January 2022 and as Whole Time Director from 3rd November 2022. He is also on the Board of the Fertilizer Association of India and serves as Director on the Boards of Adventz Group Companies Zuari Management Services Ltd. and Zuari IAV Ltd.

Mr. Marco Wadia

Independent Director

Mr. Marco Philippus Ardeshir Wadia holds a bachelor’s degree in law from Bombay University.

He is a member of the Bar Council of India. He has been a practicing advocate since 1986 and, is currently a partner at Crawford Bayley & Co. He has over 30 years of experience in the legal profession having specialised in corporate matters and mergers and acquisitions.

Mr. N Suresh Krishnan

Director

An alumnus of BITS, Pilani, Mr N Suresh Krishnan has been in leadership roles in the Indian Fertiliser Sector for over two decades. He is the current Managing Director of Paradeep Phosphates Limited, Chairman of Fertilizer Association of India (FAI) and is a member of the Boards of Directors of International Fertilizer Association (IFA) as well as Zuari Maroc Phosphates Pvt Ltd (ZMPPL).

Mr Krishnan has been associated with Fertiliser, Energy, Sugar and Cement sectors in a career spanning over 35 years. His corporate experience traverses manufacturing, corporate finance & restructuring, corporate strategy, projects planning & execution, operations, business development and mergers & acquisitions. In the past, he has served as the MD & CEO of Zuari Agro Chemicals Ltd (ZACL), Mangalore Chemicals & Fertilizers Limited (MCFL) and Zuari Industries Limited (ZIL).

Widely acknowledged for his leadership, vision and commitment, Mr Krishnan is an active proponent of resource-efficient agriculture.

Mrs. Kiran Dhingra

Additional Director

Mrs. Kiran Dhingra holds a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in English Literature from Meerut University. She is an experienced Civil Servant, retired from Indian Administrative Services (IAS), batch of 1975, UT Cadre.

Skilled in public policy, government administration, strategic planning, industrial development and management, she has several years of corporate experience. She has served as Chairman and Director on the Board of several CPSUs, and supervised their functioning. She retired in the rank of Secretary to Government of India in 2013.