Sachidanand Madan (Batch of 1975) is the CEO of ITC Limited (Fresh Food & Vegetables and Frozen Food) and CEO , ITC Limited ( Techno Agri Sciences ).

His previous stints include CEO of Mafatlal Denim & Executive roles at Hindustan Lever Ltd ( HUL). Post AFBBS he did his BCom from SRCC / CA from ICAI / CS from Institute of Company Secretaries of India.

He spent his full school years at AFBBS from Nursery to passing out in 1975 ( Second Batch to pass out of AFBBS). He fondly remembers studying in the barracks and seeing the school grow year by year from class 5 onwards. For a long time there were mainly lady teachers who treated students like family and that helped create a stronger bond between the students and staff.

He is very proud of the fact that in spite of being a smaller and younger school, it has a much larger presence primarily driven by Mrs. Baxi’s passion to promote sports along with academics. She ensured that the best facilities and coaching were available to students and quickly chose the sports to focus on. He was in the school’s swimming and water polo team which used to stand first or second in the Delhi state championships. The one teacher he fondly remembers is Mrs Raghubir who treated all students as adults and ignited the love for English literature in him.

He joined HUL and had the opportunity to be a part of the core team that created the large and profitable “Wheel business” which not only countered Nirma, but also set new operating benchmarks for the company. This gave him an opportunity to move from a commercial role to business and gave him an exposure to foods and marine products.

In 1995, he joined Mafatlal Burlington Industries Ltd. as Chief Executive to set up India’s most advanced ring denim plant, before realising that textiles was not his area and moved on to join ITC Agro Tech in 1998 to Head the Basic Foods and Edible Oil businesses and amongst others launched Act-II Popcorn, which continues to be the market leader in its category as well as Sundrop Heart Cooking Oil, the first and probably the only oil that has been clinically proven to reduce cholesterol. In 2004, he moved to Australia and joined Technico in a completely unrelated agri bio-tech business. Technico is a world leader in seed potato technology and is India’s No. 1 seed potato company which has helped improve farmer’s yield by more than 20% as well as benefited potato processors to improve efficiencies and profitability. Technico has farmed across the globe in Canada, Australia, Egypt, China, Turkey,Senegal etc.

Technico was subsequently acquired by ITC. He is currently the Chief Executive of Technico as well as ITC’s Fresh F&V and Frozen businesses which he has incubated under the Farmland and ITC Master Chef brands.

He believes that he was fortunate to get the schooling and upbringing during the baby boomer era, where competition was much less and which also gave him the opportunity to create something new in the different jobs he has had. At 61, he is still going strong and is working on new projects rather than hanging up his boots.

He is considered as an expert in Food and Agriculture and has held honorary positions such as Chairman of FICCI’s agri committee & was a part of the FICCI National Executive Committee, President of the Branded Edible Oils Manufacturers Association, been invited by the President of India to speak at the Rashtrapathi Bhawan, speak to IAS officers at the academy in Mussoorie and several local and International conferences.

His wife Renu is also a Chartered Accountant. His two children are married and settled in US and work with Amazon and Google.

Kudos !