Sanjiv Puri appointed new chairman of ITC

Sanjiv Puri, Managing Director, ITC is the new chairman of ITC following the demise of YC Deveshwar. Puri, 56, was being mentored by Deveshwar for the dual role of chairman-cum-managing director for a transition originally scheduled for 2021-22. Puri became CEO in 2017 and managing director the following year. Puri is already chairman of ITC’s corporate management committee. An alumnus of IIT-Kanpur and Wharton School of Business, he joined the company in 1986 and rose through the ranks like his predecessor. Between 2001 and 2006, he was the Managing Director of Surya Nepal, ITC’s joint venture subsidiary in the neighbouring country. He then led the IT business subsidiary, ITC Infotech India Ltd, as its MD till 2009 when he was appointed the divisional chief executive of the cigarette business with additional responsibility for the entire cigarette and FMCG (fastmoving consumer goods) distribution and the trade marketing vertical.

In 2014, he was made president of the FMCG businesses, a new position that was created to take overall charge of the entire segment. In 2015, he became an executive director when he was made overall in charge of FMCG, paperboards, paper and packaging and agri-businesses. In 2016, he was appointed to a new role of chief operating officer. In 2017, Puri was made the CEO, taking independent charge of executive leadership at ITC when Deveshwar retired from his executive role.

ITC is the owner of popular apparel brand WLS formally ITC Wills Lifestyle.