At the 56th AGM of the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce (IGCC) held in Mumbai on November 7, Mr. V.K. Viswanathan, Managing Director of Bosch Ltd., was elected its President for 2012-13.
Mr. Viswanathan joined the Bosch Group in August 1998 and worked at its headquarters at Stuttgart, Germany, for two years. He took over as Joint Managing Director of Bosch Ltd. in January 2001. Under his leadership, the company witnessed sustained growth through high level of innovation, market-oriented approach and excellence in execution, besides overall value creation for all stakeholders.
He has also been the Vice President of the Automotive Manufacturers Association (ACMA) in 2005-06.
Mr. Viswanathan was seconded to Robert Bosch, USA, in February 2006 as Senior Vice President in the Automotive Electronics and Electrical Division, North America, and subsequently he became the Regional President of the Electrical Drives Division in the US. After completing his assignment, he returned to India as Additional Director and Joint Managing Director. He became the Managing Director and Country Head of Bosch Group India with effect from February 1, 2008.
Prior to joining Bosch, Mr. Viswanathan was associated with Hindustan Unilever Ltd. in many senior positions for 17 years. After serving in Tata Consultancy Services for five years, he joined as Management Accountant in Lipton India Ltd., part of the Unilever Group, in 1982. He quickly rose to the position of Commercial Manager (Beverages) in 1985 and played a key role in transforming the loss-making beverages business into a profitable division within three years.
He was later seconded to Unilever headquarters in London for a three-year assignment as Audit Head with responsibility for all the countries in the Asia Pacific region. He returned to Hindustan Lever Ltd. in 1992 as a Group Treasurer and later on became Financial Controller and Head of Mergers and Acquisitions and worked till 1998 at Unilever.
During his stint in Unilever many high-profile mergers and acquisitions were successfully transacted and a new group architecture was designed by reorganizing and restructuring the seven Unilever companies into one consolidated entity Hindustan Unilever Ltd.
The Chairman of Robert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions Ltd., and Bosch Rexroth India Ltd., as well as Director on the Board of Bosch Chassis Systems India Ltd. and Bosch Electrical Drives India Pvt. Ltd.
Mr. Viswanathan, is a Commerce Graduate from Madras University and a Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.