Ms.Mallika Srinivasan will be the new Chairman of Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited (TAFE) and TAFE Motors and Tractors Limited.
This follows a unanimous decision by the boards of the respective companies to elect Ms. Mallika for the top slot. Apart from her responsibilities as Chairman, she will continue to discharge her present duties as Chief Executive of the two companies.
Hitherto vice-chairman of these two companies, Ms. Mallika is elevated to the Chairmanship following the demise of Chairman and Managing Director A. Sivasailam on January 12. Late Sivasailam joined TAFE in 1961 as the General Manager, which had just then been formed in collaboration with Massey Ferguson (now AGCO). He became the Chairman and Managing Director of the company in 1964. He held the position until he breathed his last.
A simple and unassuming person, Ms. Mallika is a focussed businesswoman. She cares for the details. Her conservative look does not easily reveal the aggressive businessperson in her. She took the Indian corporate world by surprise in May 2005, when she successfully supervised TAFE's acquisition of the tractor, engine and gears division of Eicher Motors for a consideration of Rs. 320 crore. Today, Ms. Mallika-driven tractor business of the Amalgamation Group has emerged a leader in the field.
Ms. Mallika has a distinguished academic record, too — PG in Econometrics, University of Madras, Business Studies at Wharton where she was a Member of the Dean’s Honor List and Alpha Beta Gamma Society, all-India rank holder and recipient of the Kulapathi Gold Medal in Marketing and Advertising from Bhavan’s College of Mass Communication, a course in Hindi literature.
``While we will miss our late Chairman‘s leadership, we are confident that Ms. Mallika, as our new Chairman, will continue to provide the dynamic leadership, path-breaking ideas and astute strategy to take us forward on our exciting growth plans for the future,'' says a notice put up TAFE's official website.
