Leadership

Mr. Saroj Kumar Poddar is also the Chairman of the Adventz Group. He holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce from St. Xavier’s College, University of Calcutta. He has served as the President of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and was also appointed as a member of the Board of Trade and a member of the Court of the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore by the Government of India. He was also on the Advisory Council of N M Rothschild (India) Limited. He is also a recipient of the Rashtriya Samman award from the Central Board of Direct Taxes.

An alumnus of BITS, Pilani, Mr. N. Suresh Krishnan has been in leadership roles in the Indian fertilizer sector for over two decades. He is the current Chairman of Fertilizer Association of India (FAI) and is a member of the Board of Directors of International Fertilizer Association (IFA) as well as Zuari Maroc Phosphates Pvt. Ltd. (ZMPPL), the promoter organisation of PPL.

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

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

Mr. Soual Mohamed holds an engineering degree in the electronics stream from the National School of Civil Aviation, Toulouse, France. He has also completed a certificate programme in accelerated general management from HEC Paris, France. He currently holds a full-time position as the Adviser to the CEO and Chief Economist of OCP, Morocco.

Mr. Karim Lotfi Senhadji is a nominee Director of Zuari Maroc Phosphates Pvt. Ltd, a Joint Venture between Office Cherifien des Phosphates (OCP), Morocco and Zuari Agro Chemicals Limited, the flagship company of Adventz Group. He holds full time position of Chief Financial Officer in OCP, Morocco.

Mr. Karim Lotfi Senhadji joined OCP in 2010 as a Director in charge of management control. He then held the position of Vice-President Shipment & Logistics before his appointment as CEO at OCP Africa. Prior to OCP, Mr. Lotfi Senhadji held several management positions within several Moroccan and international companies, such as Holcim Group, Altadis Morocco and Méditelecom. He holds an Executive MBA from ESSEC & Mannheim Business Schools and graduated from the Royal Air Force School of Marrakech where he got his degree in aeronautical engineering and trained as a pilot.

Mr. Dipankar Chatterji passed the final examinations held by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India in 1969 and became a fellow thereafter. He is currently a senior partner at L B Jha & Co., Chartered Accountants. He was a member of the working group constituted by the RBI to review the system of on-site supervision over banks. He has served as Chairman of the Auditing Practices Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and the audit committee of the Board of Directors of Union Bank of India. He has also served as a Director on the Board of SBI Home Finance Limited.

Mr. Satyananda Mishra holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in English from Utkal University. He retired from Indian Administrative Services (IAS), batch of 1973. He has served as Chairman of the Multi-Commodity Exchange of India Limited and as an Independent Director of SIDBI. At present, he is serving as a Director on the Boards of REVA University, Bangalore and the National Foundation of India.

Mr. Subhrakant Panda is the current president of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), India’s apex business chamber.

He is also the Managing Director of Indian Metals & Ferro Alloys Ltd., which was established in 1961 and is today the country's leading producer of value-added ferro alloys with its own chrome ore mines and captive power generation.

He is a Past President (2017-18) of the International Chamber of Commerce - India Chapter and is also only the third Indian to have been elected President (2013-15) of the Paris-based International Chromium Development Association (ICDA). He has earlier served as Chairman of the Odisha State Council and the National Manufacturing Committee.

Mr. Panda graduated with honours summa cum laude from the Questrom School of Business, Boston University in 1993 with a dual concentration in finance and operations management.

Mrs. Rita Menon is M.A (Economics) from Delhi School of Economics. She joined the Indian Administrative Service in the year 1975 and held a number of senior positions in the Government of India and the Government of Uttar Pradesh. In her career as IAS officer, she has worked in various positions like Chairperson and Managing Director of India Trade Promotion Organization, Chairperson of TNTPO & KTPO, various departments/ ministries of Government of India such as Secretary in Ministry of Textiles, Additional Secretary and Special Secretary in Ministry of Finance, Joint Secretary in Ministry of Defence, etc., She was also Director of various public sector undertakings like BEL, GRSEL, Goa Shipyard Ltd, Mazagaon Dock Ltd, SIDBI etc.

An alumnus of BITS, Pilani, Mr. N. Suresh Krishnan has been in leadership roles in the Indian fertilizer sector for over two decades. He is the current Chairman of Fertilizer Association of India (FAI) and is a member of the Board of Directors of International Fertilizer Association (IFA) as well as Zuari Maroc Phosphates Pvt. Ltd. (ZMPPL), the promoter organisation of PPL.

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

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

A mechanical engineer from the National Institute of Technology Suratkal, Karnataka (India), Mr. Nambiar has a rich experience of over 29 years in the Corporate Sector. He is a highly accomplished professional who is credited to build profitable business organisations.

Prior to joining the Company, he was associated with the Shree Digvijay Cement since 2015, where he held a broad range of leadership positions, the most recent being MD & CEO of the company and had successfully managed a turnaround of 75+ year old facility of 1.20 MTPA Integrated Cement business by strong P&L management and improving the consumer experience.  As an enterprise leader, he drove sustained excellence across the organisation to bring out strong financial outcomes.

Prior to Digvijay Cement, he worked with ACC for 21 years., where he handled various roles in operations, large project execution, and trade sales domain. Some of his outstanding achievements in that organization included the commissioning of the largest kiln at ACC Wadi and turning around loss-making units.  

Mr. Harshdeep Singh hold a master’s degree in international business from Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) and a Bachelor of Engineering (BE) degree from the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela. Prior to joining PPL. He was associcated with Hindustan Unilever Limited (HUL) and Tata Chemicals, and has extensive experience in the agribusiness and FMCG sector, specifically in brand management, commercial operations (supply chain, procurement, etc.) and wholesale and retail sales operations.

Mr. Bijoy Kumar Biswal is a Chartered Accountant and has over 23 years of experience in finance across various corporations, including eight years with Adventz Group companies. His previous roles included serving as the Chief Financial Officer of Forte Furniture Products India Pvt. Ltd. (FFPL), Chennai, and as Finance Controller of Zuari Agro Chemicals Ltd. (ZACL), Gurgaon. As a Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Mr. Biswal is responsible for the overall finance, accounts, and taxation functions of the company.

Mr. Raj Kumar Gupta is a Cost Accountant and has over 32 years of work experience in the fields of finance and accounts, taxation, risk management, and commercial. He has been associated with the fertilizer industry for over 28 years in India and abroad.

Prior to joining PPL, he was the Chief Financial Officer of Zuari Agro Chemicals Limited and has held senior positions in Zuari Oiltanking Pvt. Ltd., Suhail Bahwan Group, Oman, IMACID, Morocco and Chambal Fertilisers and Chemicals Ltd. As the company’s Chief Procurement Officer, Mr. Gupta is responsible for commercial functions including purchase, industrial sales and raw material procurement.

Rajneesh joined Paradeep Phosphates in July 2023. As our CHRO, he is playing a vital role in shaping our people strategy and interventions towards business growth of the organization. His passion for creating inclusive and diverse workplaces aligns perfectly with our company's values.

He started his career in Indian Army, serving the infantry, where he found his calling to leverage culture and people practices to build strong organizations.  With that personal mission, in 2009, he moved to the corporate sector and has since then contributed significantly to strengthening people and organization practices across Dalmia Group, Essar Group and Jindal Power.  Most recently, he was the Global HR Head for Supply Chain and Manufacturing for UPL, the fifth largest global agchem player,  where he led HR transformation projects in big manufacturing units across cross-cultural set ups.  Seen as a true strategic business partner, he played a strong role in enabling business performance in UPL through talent, training, compensation and governance.  

Rajneesh comes with strong academic credentials, having done his Bachelors from Kirori Mal College, University of Delhi and Executive Management from XLRI, Jamshedpur.  He is an avid reader, plays basketball and, loves to spend his free time with family.  

Mr. Nilesh Dessai is the Chief Manufacturing Officer and Unit Head of Goa Plant. He has more than 27 years of experience in operations, including production, maintenance, project management, and engineering of the fertilizer manufacturing plant (Urea, NPKs, DAP). He holds a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from the College of Engineering, Goa.

Mr. Vinay Venkappayya joined Zuari Agro Chemicals Ltd., Goa (now PPL, Goa Unit) in 1998 as a Graduate Engineer Trainee. He has more than 22 years of experience in process and plant engineering services, projects, environment, QA/QC, and compliance functions. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering (B.E.) degree in Chemical Engineering from the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Surathkal.

At the corporate level, he was involved in the conceptualisation and engineering of a few greenfield integrated ammonia-urea and DAP/NPK fertilizer manufacturing projects. He has experience working on various acquisition and joint venture projects of integrated as well as standalone phosphate and potash mining projects, and fertilizer manufacturing projects in the Americas, Africa, West Asia and Far East regions. His areas of specialisation include various fertilizer manufacturing process technologies and plant retrofitting/revamping.

As CSO, Mr. Venkappayya oversees the ESG and sustainability initiatives, as well as strategic projects of the company.

Mr. Palanisamy Velusamy is the Chief Manufacturing Officer and Unit Head of Paradeep Plant. He has over 29 years of experience in Nitrogenous and phosphatic Fertilizers and the Petrochemical Industry, where he has worked extensively in the Production, Maintenance, Project Management, Technical Services, and Engineering of various manufacturing assets. 

Prior to  joining PPL, he was associated with Indorama, Senegal as Head of 2.0 MTPA Rock phosphate and 0.6 MTPA Phosphoric acid manufacturing assets for 3 years & Southern Petrochemicals Industries Corporation (SPIC)  for 26 years.

He holds a bachelor's degree in Chemical Engineering from Annamalai University and MBA degree from Indira Gandhi University. 

Mr. Sachin Patil holds a bachelor’s degree in corporate secretariship (first class with distinction) from Karnatak University, Dharwad. He is an associate member of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India. He was earlier associated with Zuari Global Limited as Assistant Company Secretary and Compliance Officer.