- Sunday, May 05, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
MUKESH Ambani, the chairman of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) and Asia’s richest man, wants to expedite RIL’s leadership transition and said the conglomerate is in the middle of a “momentous leadership transition”.
Speaking in a virtual speech on Tuesday (28) to a Reliance Industries’ employees’ event, Ambani, 64, said the company “is now in the process of effecting a momentous leadership transition from seniors belonging to my generation to the next generation of young leaders”.
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He also said that he “would like the process to be accelerated”.
Ambani, who foresees the retail-to-refining business to touching new heights under his three children, stopped short of giving details of how the transition is being executed. However, the billionaire is said to be mulling several succession plans, Bloomberg reported in November.
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It is anticipated that Ambani wants to avoid a succession warfare which has hurt many wealthy families, including his own in the past. The transition at Reliance will be one of the most eagerly awaited events in the business world.
Ambani said all senior leaders in the company, including himself, should “yield to the highly competent, extremely committed and incredibly promising talent” at the Reliance group.
Ambani is careful about the leadership transition since he himself witnessed a bitter succession battle with his younger brother Anil Ambani when their father Dhirubhai Ambani passed away in 2002 without a will. The fight was so intense that the Ambani brothers’ mother – Kokilaben – had to step in and make a family pact in 2005 to calm things down.
The senior Ambani’s children are more visible of late. In June, he said while addressing shareholders that twins Akash and Isha, 30, along with their younger sibling Anant, 26, would play a key role in the company.
Last month, Bloomberg said that Ambani is considering moving his family’s holdings into a trust-like structure that will control the Mumbai-listed flagship.
On Tuesday, the RIL chairman said that his children were taking more responsibilities as part of the leadership transition. He also added that he could see in his kids the same spark and potential of his late father and founder of Reliance.
