G M RAO

Group Chairman, GMR Group

GM Rao, a mechanical engineer, is the Founder Chairman of the GMR Group, the Global infrastructure company.

Mr. Rao hails from a small town in Andhra Pradesh, India. Before India’s economic liberalisation, he has explored every business opportunity that came on his way. Starting with a single jute mill in 1978 he has ventured into 28 different businesses as a serial entrepreneur.

After the economic liberalisation in 1994, his moves became entirely strategy driven. He has divested all the unrelated businesses and primarily focused on the core infrastructure sector resulted in GMR Group exiting some of the highly attractive businesses of banking, insurance, software, breweries, jute and sugar.

Over the last 4 decades he has successfully established GMR Group, as one of the most recognized brands in the country. The Group is now well diversified and professionally managed infrastructure developer with focus on Airports, Energy, Highways and Urban Infrastructure including SEZs. Though all these business opportunities were new to the Group and to the Country, the Group has scaled up quickly and delivered world-class quality assets.

While business grew rapidly, GM Rao laid emphasis on institution building as well. Much focus was laid on Four pillars of Institution Building – People, Process, Governance & Technology. The GMR Group Vision states “GMR Group will be an institution in perpetuity that will build entrepreneurial organizations making a difference to society through creation of value.” A set of seven core Values & Beliefs was arrived at, to define the GMR Group’s distinct organization culture.

Rao believes that “Family must be run like Business and Business must be run like Family”. He quotes “Strong family governance ensures strong corporate governance”. He has been focusing very early on ESG – Environment, Social and Governance in all the infrastructure assets.

With a strong inclination of ‘Giving back to Society’ he has established GMR Varalakshmi Foundation close to 30 years back which is actively working in the areas of education, healthcare, livelihood and community development for over 20 locations across the Country impacting lakhs of lives every year.

Mr. Rao has been conferred with several awards and recognitions. For his considerable achievements, he insists “All the credit goes to my GMR colleagues and my family for their understanding, shared vision, hard work and dedication”.

Srinivas Bommidala

Business Chairman - Energy & International Airports

Mr. Srinivas Bommidala hails from a business family of over nine decades of experience in tobacco exports. After graduating, he joined the family business in 1982 and diversified into aerated water bottling plants, while growing the tobacco business globally further.

Mr. Srinivas Bommidala, a Group Director, and son-in-law of Mr. G M Rao, is one of the first directors of the Company. Over the years, since 1995, he has led the bidding, development and operation of all business verticals of the Group, including Airports, Energy, Urban Infra, Sports.

Being a visionary leader, he has led many first-of-its-kind initiatives for the Group, including setting up one of the first PPP power project in India in 1995, heading the transition of Delhi International Airport (largest PPP airport project) as first Managing Director in 2006, spearheading the Group’s foray in the sports franchise as well as incubation of the IT & Digital transformation initiatives, across the organization. Under his leadership, the concept of Aerotropolis was conceived and took shape in Delhi and Hyderabad Aero cities. Since then, these have become a global destination for business, commerce and leisure. From 2012 to 2017, he served as the Chairman of Airports business, during which period, GMR emerged amongst the top five airport developers in the world. He also delivered a substantial growth pipeline for the airports sector, by winning projects in India and overseas viz., Goa (Mopa), Cebu (Philippines), Crete (Greece) and Medan (Indonesia).

He continues to lead the Group’s International Airports business in South East Asia and Greece, and the transformation of the Energy portfolio.

G B S Raju

Business Chairman - Airports

Mr. G B S Raju, a Group Director, is the elder son of Mr. G.M. Rao and has been on the Company’s Board since 1999.

He began his career as the Managing Director of GMR Energy Limited and was responsible for setting up the 220 MW barge-mounted power plant. During his subsequent stint as Chairman of Energy Sector during 2012-17, multiple power generation plants including transmission projects were implemented at various development phases, with an aggregate capacity of about 7500 MW.

Mr. Raju as Group CFO, successfully led the Group through GMR Infrastructure’s maiden IPO in 2006 and certain largest QIPs & Private Equity investments in the years 2007, 2010 & 2011 amounting to approx. US$3 Billion in the Energy and Airport sectors of the Group.

He is presently the Chairman of the Airport sector and in addition leads GMR Varalakshmi Foundation, the CSR wing of GMR Group and spearheads Information Technology & Digitalization across the Group. With his far sightedness and entrepreneurial skills, Mr. Raju has been a key player in leading GMR’s foray into the Airport sector and in developing the Hyderabad, Delhi, Istanbul and the Bhogapuram Greenfield Airport. The Group was guided by his strategic vision in developing international business and building projects including the Sabiha Gökçen International Airport, Istanbul and a power project in Jurong Island, Singapore.

Kiran Kumar Grandhi

Corporate Chairman

Mr. Kiran Kumar Grandhi, a Graduate in Commerce, is the younger son of Mr. G M Rao and has been on the Company’s Board since 1999.

He has been instrumental in winning several successful infrastructure bids for the Group under Public Private Partnership route with the Central and State Governments in sectors like Airports, Highways, etc. He led the GMR Group’s successful bids for Hyderabad, Delhi, Istanbul, Male Airports as well as the construction efforts for completion of Terminal 3 of Delhi Airport in a record time.

In the past, as Chairman of Urban Infrastructure & Highways, he managed a portfolio of ~1,200 kms of Highways across 10 projects.

He has also been instrumental in GMR Group’s foray into development of sports vertical through acquisition and management of the Delhi Daredevils IPL team. Currently, he is overseeing Group Finance and Corporate Strategic Planning functions of the Group, in addition to leading the Sports business of the Group.

B V N Rao

Business Chairman – Transportation & Urban Infra

Mr. B V N Rao, a Group Director, has been associated with the Group since 1989 and is one of the first Directors of the Company. He is a graduate in Electrical Engineering from Andhra University.

During his tenure with Andhra Bank, before joining the Group, he gained extensive experience in the Banking Sector with specific focus in Industrial Finance. He was also on the board of Vysya Bank (now known as ING Vysya Bank Limited) for eight years. He has held various senior responsibilities in the GMR Group. He is also a Director on the GMR Group Holding Board.

Currently as a Business Chairman, he heads Transportation & Urban Infrastructure covering Transportation, SEZ & the EPC business. Under his leadership, the Group is developing two Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation (DFCC) projects. These projects are of national importance intended to ensure speedy and efficient transportation of cargo.