Rakesh Makhija To Replace R. Gopalakrishnan As Chairman Of Castrol India
R. Gopalakrishnan will be completing his second term as an Independent Director of Castrol India Limited on September 30, 2024. Consequently, he will also cease to be the Chairman of the Board, effective said date.
The Board has decided to appoint Independent Director Rakesh Makhija as Chairman of the Board of Directors, succeeding Gopalakrishnan, with effect from October 1, 2024.
The company has also informed exchanges that Uday Khanna will be completing his second term as an Independent Director. Consequently, he will also retire on September 30, 2024.
In another development, Castrol Limited (UK), the promoter of the company, has withdrawn the nomination of Sashi Mukundan as nominee Director of the company with effect from October 31, 2024, in view of Mukundan’s ensuing retirement from BP.
In accordance with the nomination letter received from Castrol Limited (UK), Kartikeya Dube has been appointed as Nominee Director of the company with effect from July 30, 2024, subject to the approval of the shareholders of the company.
R. Gopalakrishnan has been serving as the Chairman of Castrol India since October 2000. He is also an Independent Director for the Press Trust of India (PTI). He brings with him an extensive corporate experience of nearly 55 years, of which 31 years were with Hindustan Lever Limited (HLL) / Unilever and 18 years with the Tata Group. Notable roles that Gopalakrishnan has held in his corporate career include those of Chairman of Unilever Arabia, based in Jeddah, and Managing Director of Brooke Bond Lipton India, based in Bengaluru. He has also served as the Vice Chairman of HLL and the Executive Director of Tata Sons Limited and other Tata companies.
Rakesh Makhija has been serving on Castrol India’s Board as an Independent Director since October 2019. He also serves as an Independent Director on the Board of Axis Bank Limited (since 2015) and as the Non-Executive Chairman of Axis Bank since July 2019. Makhija also serves on the Board of A.TREDS Limited. During his career spanning over four decades, Makhija has held several top management positions within the SKF group. He was the President of the Industrial Market (Strategic Industries) and a member of the SKF Group executive committee, based in Gothenburg, Sweden.
