Date:01/09/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/01/stories/2008090159791500.htm

Business

B.K. Birla, Keshub Mahindra in septuagenarian tycoons’ list

New York: Four Indian corporate leaders B.K. Birla, Keshub Mahindra, C.P. Krishnan Nair and K.P. Singh have joined the league of global czars like Warren Buffett and Rupert Murdoch in a list of the world’s top 50 septuagenarian business heads compiled by the U.S. magazine, BusinessWeek.

These 50 people, aged 70 and above, are giving the young generation of businessmen a run for their money despite being beyond the age when most of the people retire from work, it says.

The list also includes Playboy Editor-in-Chief Hugh Hefner, billionaire investor George Soros and former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.

At the age of 100 years, Chinese TV tycoon Run Run Shaw is the oldest in the list.

B.K. Birla (87) is the chairman of the Birla Group and 84-year old Keshub is Mahindra & Mahindra chairman. The 84-year-old hotelier, C.P. Krishnan Nair, and 77-year-old realty baron K.P. Singh are chairmen of the Hotel Leela Venture and the DLF group respectively.

The magazine says that the septuagenarians running the show is “not the norm in the corporate world,” and at most, companies 65 years of age is the cut-off. — PTI