Bhuwan Chandra Tripathi
A mechanical engineer with over 39 years of experience in the energy and infrastructure sector, Mr. Bhuwan Chandra Tripathi, was the youngest person to become the chairman of any Indian public sector company in 2009. He joined ONGC in 1982 and was one of the founding employees of GAIL in 1983 and went on to becoming Executive Director (Projects) in 2004, followed by Director (Marketing) in 2007 and in 2009 the Chairman and Managing Director of the organization for a decade.
Widely regarded as one of the finest CEOs in the country, Mr. Tripathi navigated GAIL through several challenging times. Under his leadership, the company strengthened its core businesses across natural gas midstream and downstream value chains. During his tenure as the CEO, he steered the organization towards 3X increase in physical asset base, 3X increase in turnover from $3.6 Bn. to $11 Bn., 2X market capitalization from $5 Bn. to $9.8 Bn. and 2X increase in PAT. As the CEO, he executed projects worth $8 Bn. in natural gas pipelines, petrochemical plants, exploration & production, LNG import terminal, LNG shipping, city gas and renewable energy. He diversified GAIL LNG portfolio by sourcing additional 9 MT of LNG from US, Russia and Australia which provided geographical diversity in supply to ensure country’s energy availability and security. He revolutionised city gas projects in India enabling 57 cities to get piped gas by expanding the distribution network by 12X, CNG stations by 3X and gas consumption in cities by 4.5X.
Mr. Tripathi led GAIL not only to acquire ‘Maharatna’ status from Government of India but also position among Global Top 10 gas player as a multi asset portfolio company with presence across gas value chain in multiple geographies of India, USA, Singapore, Myanmar and Egypt. Mr. Tripathi introduced many corporate governance initiatives to make GAIL one of fastest growing companies in India, garnering recognition on multiple occasions and excellent comments from government and statutory bodies. He has wide experience of project management, contract negotiations and stakeholder management with extensive experience under changing political and bureaucratic backdrop.
He has established multiple companies such as Brahmaputra Crackers and Polymers Limited- Assam, GAIL Global Singapore, GAIL Global US and has served in board level positions of companies such as Director Petronet LNG, Chairman IGL and MGL. As his legacy, on his superannuation he left GAIL as a debt-free company with approved project pipeline of $7 Bn. in petrochemical, fertilizer, coal gasification, LNG terminal, gas pipeline and city gas projects. He is an energy, petrochemicals and infrastructure sector veteran and was the key industry expert driving national policy reforms for the oil and gas sector.
He is the recipient of 2019 ‘Best CEO Award’ by Business Today for taking GAIL to new heights.
Presently, Mr. Tripathi is serving as an Advisor/ Board Member in multiple organisations in India and Europe.
- Advisor, Greenko Group (promoted by GIC Singapore) who are engaged in developing renewable energy, energy storage, green hydrogen and green molecule business and is leading their efforts into clean energy transition in India.
- Advisor, Essar Capital Limited, which is the investment manager of Essar Global Fund with Assets under Management of over $6 bn.
- Advisor, Snam S.p.A, Italy, the largest gas infra company in Europe.
- Member of the Board of Directors at Deepak Fertilizers and Petrochemicals.
- Board of governance of IIT Gandhinagar
Further, he provides advisory services to various corporates, investment firms and banks such as UBS Securities, Bloom Energy USA, Macquarie Group etc. He is also a member on the governing body of school of sustainability being set up by Greenko at IIT Hyderabad.