Mukesh Ambani resigns, son Akash Ambani succeeds as chairman

Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani resigned from the board of Reliance Jio, handing over the role to his son Akash Ambani.

Akash, a non-executive director at India’s Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, is appointed as chairman of the board, the company announced this in an exchange filing on June 27.

Mukesh will continue to be the chairman of Jio Platforms Ltd , the flagship company that owns all Jio digital services brands including Reliance Jio Infocom.

This is the first instance where he has officially taken a backseat, after announcing last year that his children were taking  more responsibilities.

“This is another clear signal that Mukesh Ambani is taking the next step of redefining his involvement with the group,” said Kavil Ramachandran, a professor and executive director at the Thomas Schmidheiny Centre for Family Enterprise at the Hyderabad-based Indian School of Business. “I hope he has taken care to make this a successful succession by strengthening the team around Akash Ambani.”

Mukesh has three children, twins Akash and Isha and youngest son Anant. 30-year-old Akash has studied economics from Brown University. He was part of the team that negotiated Meta Platforms Inc.’s investment into Jio’s parent, besides leading other key acquisitions. His elevation comes at a time when the Reliance group, dominated by fossil-fuel profits, is pivoting toward consumer offerings.

Among other appointments, Pankaj Mohan Pawar will take over as the Managing Director of the company from 27 June. Raminder Singh Gujral and KV Chowdary were appointed independent directors.

Founded by Dhirubhai Ambani, Reliance Industries Limited is an Indian multinational conglomerate company, headquartered in Mumbai. It has diverse businesses including energy, petrochemicals, natural gas, retail, telecommunications, mass media, and textiles.

According to  the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Mukesh Ambani’s net worth is estimated at $93bn as of June 2022, making him the richest person in Asia and seventh richest in the world.

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