Mukesh Ambani's 'accelerated leadership transition' gains pace at RIL

The “accelerated leadership transition” that Mukesh Ambani is executing in Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), India’s largest company by market value, will see the rise of a new set of young leaders in oil-to-telecom conglomerate. Company sources say a set of 20-25 experienced executives who proved their leadership skills in areas like operations, finance, strategy, marketing and mergers and acquisitions are ready to take centre stage in RIL.

“We have mentored young talent across business verticals and given them opportunities to hone the skills,” said an executive. Ambani’s three children--- Isha, Akash and Anant--- are actively involved in the new businesses of RIL and they are being groomed for leadership roles by the seniors like Manoj Modi, Alok Agarwal and the Meswani brothers--- Nikhil and Hital.

Ambani announced at the Reliance Family Day in December, which marks the birth anniversary of the group’s founder Dhirubhai Ambani, that Reliance is in the process of effecting a momentous leadership transition. "I have no doubt that Akash, Isha and Anant as the next-gen leaders will lead Reliance to even greater heights." He also said, “all seniors - myself included - should now yield to the highly competent, extremely committed, and incredibly promising young leadership talent at Reliance."

Who all will be the in the team of Ambani siblings? Since Reliance Jio is a new business, the members in the team are also young, The group management has a lot of expectation about the young leaders in Jio including, Mathew Oommen (president, Reliance Jio), Kiran Thomas (director, Jio), Anshuman Thakur (head of strategy), R Srinivasan (President--- Revenue & Commercial Operations, Jio), Prateek Pashine (President, Enterprise Business), Saurabh Sancheti (group CFO, Jio Platforms), Ashish Lodha (Senior Vice President--- strategy, Consumer Product & Services, Jio Platforms) and Aayush Bhatnagar (Senior Vice President--- 5G & Blockchain).

The retail business has CEOs at each vertical and it is overlooked by V Subramaniam (managing director). The company has been represented by young faces like Ashwin Khasgiwala (CFO) and Dinesh Thapar (group CFO).

The noted names at the group level include Dhanraj Nathwani (president), Sanjay Roy (exploration and production), Niraj Ambani (president, supply chain), Soumyo Dutta (treasury, RIL), Raj Mullick (chief accounts officer), Navin Wadhwani (mergers & acquisitions) and Nilesh Modi (chief of Staff, Chairman's Office).

Twins Isha and Akash were appointed on the board of Reliance Jio Infocomm and Reliance Retail in 2014. However, they took up active roles with the launch of Jio in 2016-17. Anant, the youngest son of Asia’s richest man, was appointed as a director on Jio Platforms board in March 2020. He has also been appointed as director of new solar companies, including Reliance New Energy Solar. Anant was the only child of Ambani who contributed to the management discussion and analysis of all three major business verticals of RIL--- oil to chemicals, digital and telecom and retail--- in the last financial year.

The Ambani heiress contributed to the transformation of Reliance Retail into an omni-channel retailer through the launch of e-commerce platform JioMart in 2019. In 2020, she was involved in the $6.4-billion fundraising of the retail chain and part of the negotiations for the group's acquisitions. Akash is working closely with Ambani’s office and is part of the key decisions in Jio.