Date:18/09/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/18/stories/2008091856091200.htm

National

Kumar Mangalam Birla is BITS Chancellor

Special Correspondent

Kumar Mangalam Birla

JAIPUR: Leading industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla is the new Chancellor of the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani. He succeeds K.K. Birla, who passed away recently.

An MBA from the London Business School and chairman of the Aditya Birla Group, he is the grand nephew of K.K. Birla.

Shobhana Bhartia, Chairperson and Editorial Director of HT Media Ltd. and daughter of K.K. Birla, has now become the Pro-Chancellor, replacing Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla. Earlier, she was a member of the Board of Governors.

Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla was elected Chancellor at a meeting of the Board of Governors at Birla House in Delhi on September 14. After his election, he nominated Ms. Bhartia as the Pro-Chancellor.

K.K. Birla had publicly expressed his desire at a function in May 2006 on the Goa campus of the institute and also during the foundation laying ceremony of the Hyderabad campus in April 2007 that Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla should succeed him as Chancellor.

The Board of Governors comprises Vice-Chancellors of various campuses of the institute, besides the directors.