G M Rao, 58, a mechanical engineer by profession, is the founder Chairman of GMR Group, a leading infrastructure developer in the country. The Group is well diversified and professionally managed with focus on business verticals of Energy, Urban Infrastructure and Highways including SEZ, Airports and Agri-business.

Born on July 14, 1950 in a small town of Rajam in the Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh, G M Rao established the GMR business empire starting from a single jute mill in Rajam in 1978.
A visionary businessman, G M Rao recognised the huge business potential in entering the infrastructure space, with the opening up of the power sector in the 90s in India. Within a span of a decade, he successfully established three greenfield power plants in the country, one each in the state of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. Under his guidance, the Group is now developing several power projects in various parts of the country.

G M Rao expanded the Group's presence in the infrastructure sector by leading the Group's foray into Roads, The Group has already completed two greenfield road projects and four more projects are under various stages of implementation. Realising that Airports will drive the economy in the 21st century, G M Rao spearheaded the Group's entry into the high profile airport business. Under his leadership the Group is developing the new greenfield International Airport at Hyderabad, and is modernising and restructuring the Delhi International Airport. While the new Hyderabad Airport will commence operations by March 2008, the first phase of Delhi Airport will be commissioned by 2010 in time for the Commonwealth Games.

Under G M Rao's visionary leadership, the Group bagged its first global project by winning the bid to modernise the Sabiha Gokcen International (SGA) airport at Istanbul, Turkey and also ventured into the new business sector of Urban Infrastructure. The Group will set up a 3300 acre multi-product SEZ in Krishnagiri District of Tamil Nadu.

G M Rao has today successfully established GMR Group, as one of the leading infrastructure organisations in the country. His commitment to the core infrastructure sector has resulted in the Group exiting some of the highly lucrative businesses of banking, insurance, breweries and jute. Rao was the largest shareholder in the country's leading 75-year-old private sector Vysya Bank, which has been successfully transformed into a modern technology driven and hugely successful financial enterprise. For his visionary approach and outstanding contribution to ING Vysya Bank for a period of two decades as its Director and Chairman, the Bank in September 2006 conferred on him the status and title of 'Chairman Emeritus'.

He was chosen as the 'Entrepreneur of the year' at the Economic Times Awards for Corporate Excellence 2006 - 07 this year. The award has been given to him in recognition of his exemplary entrepreneurial spirit and potential in breaking into the big league of top infrastructure organizations in India.

Besides infrastructure, the other focus area for the GMR Group is Agri-business. The Group already has a sugar plant in Andhra Pradesh and is coming up with another in the state of Karnataka. The existing plant provides livelihood for over 25000 farmers from 500 villages of the region in one form or the other.

With a strong desire to serve the needs of the marginalized sections and the rural society, Rao set up the GMR Varalakshmi Foundation, to raise their living standards. The Foundation is active in the areas of education, health and hygiene, community development and empowerment of rural youth.

To face the challenges of tomorrow and meet the future needs of a fast developing country like India, G M Rao has laid a strong emphasis in building a transparent and system driven organization. While a set of seven core values define the GMR Group's distinct organization culture, Rao has also spearheaded a "Family Constitution" model for the group. The aim of this is to ensure a smooth transition of business from generation to generation, and enable professionals to discharge their rightful roles in the growth and development of the Group. In line with this, over a period of time, the members of the family would provide only the strategic inputs and investment needs and counseling for all the businesses and activities of the Group.

G M Rao's thrust is on combining the best of entrepreneurial spirit with a dynamic team of professional managers who work in an enabling and vibrant organisational culture, to sustain and consistently meet his vision for the Group of 'Building Entrepreneurial organisations that make a difference to society through Creation of Value'.

Kiran Kumar Grandhi entered the family business in 1996 at the age of 21 and formally joined the Group as its Director in 1998. He has since worked on key strategic assignments which were crucial in transforming the Group into a leading infrastructure power-house of the country. These include: driving the strategic tie-ups with PSEG Global Inc. for Tanir Bavi Power Project; the life insurance joint venture with ING and Vysya Bank (that the company has exited); the joint venture with Malaysia Airports Holdings, Berhad for GMR Hyderabad International Airport (GHIAL) project; and with United Engineers of Malaysia for bidding the Golden Quadrilateral projects.

He also played a significant role in helping the Group bag two of the annuity road projects at competitive rates benchmarked by the industry. His next major contribution came by way of enabling the Group to emerge as the preferred bidder and subsequently the developer of the Greenfield GMR Hyderabad International Airport.

Kiran is also MD, GHIAL and Delhi International Airport Limited (DIAL). Under his leadership, the new Greenfield, Rajiv Gandhi International airport was commissioned on schedule on 23rd March, 2008, in Hyderabad. As MD, DIAL, he is responsible for completing the brand new international airport in Delhi in time for the Common Wealth Games in 2010. That apart, as Chairman, Airports Business, he is also heading the Group’s Airport Business Development division and Aviation SEZs.

With over 22 years of wide ranging experience, Srinivas Bommidala hails from a business family with interests in Agriculture, FMCG and Services Sector. During this period, Bommidala played a monumental role in establishing new projects in the above mentioned business sectors.

At GMR, he played an instrumental role in the Group's foray into the infrastructure sector and in setting up the Group’s first Power Project—the GMR Power Corporation Pvt. Ltd (GPCL), in 1998. Under his leadership, the Group's third Greenfield Power Project, a 388.5 MW Combined-cycle Gas Turbine Power Project at Vemagiri was successfully completed.

As the MD, Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL), B. Srinivas has led the project through its initial stages, to ensure its timely launch before the Commonwealth games in 2010. He has also succeeded in creating a strong team of proven professionals. As the Chairman, Urban Infrastructure and Highways, he is responsible for the Highways, Property, Construction and SEZ businesses (excluding Aviation SEZs).

Mr. Challa Prasanna has been associated with the GMR Group for over 17 years with cross functional contribution. A Post Graduate in Management, Prasanna brings with him over 26 years of rich and varied corporate experience. Before joining GHIAL, he was the Director (Finance) of GMR Industries Limited responsible for the Ferro Alloys, Breweries and Sugar divisions of the company. Prior to GMR Group, he was associated with the Nagarjuna Group for over 9 years.

Prasanna presently heads Corporate Relations function wherein he is responsible for government interface for the Group’s business verticals in South India, such as Energy and Urban Infrastructure besides Hyderabad and Male’ Airports.

From the very initial days, Prasanna was associated with the Hyderabad Airport project and played a crucial role in Land Acquisition, facilitating critical approvals as well as ensuring connectivity to the airport.

Tan Sri Bashir Ahmad bin Abdul Majid is currently the Managing Director of Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad (MAHB). He holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree (Honors) in International Relations from Malaysia. He has over 30 years of experience in the airline industry, having worked for companies such as the Malaysian Airline System Berhad (MAS) from June 1972 to November 2001. He retired as the Executive Vice-President, Airline from MAS.

Prior to joining MAHB, he was Aviation Advisor to the Ministry of Transport, Malaysia.

Mr. H J Dora, former Director General of Police of Andhra Pradesh, is a Director on Board of the company.
 
He served the Police department in various districts till the year 1984.

Thereafter, for over 5 years, he served the Police Intelligence.

From early 1989 to late 1992, he headed the APSRTC as its Vice Chairman and Managing Director.

He later served as Commissioner of Police, Hyderabad from April 93 to November 95 and as Director General & I G of Police, Andhra Pradesh, between 1996 to 2002.

He also worked as Director General, CISF, New Delhi and as Vigilance Commissioner, Central Vigilance Commission.

He is the recipient of awards such as the "Police Medal of Gallantry", "Police Medal for Meritorious Service" and "President Police Medal for Distinguished Service".

Mr. V. Bhaskar, IAS, is presently the Principal Finance Secretary, Government of Andhra Pradesh.

He joined Indian Administrative Service in 1981 and worked in number of field level posts including as Collector & District Magistrate of Anantapur and Visakhapatnam Districts. Subsequently, he worked as Managing Director of Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Board.

He joined the Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance, Government of India in 1997. Subsequently in 2000, he was deputed to the International Monetary Fund, Washington DC as Advisor to the Executive Director.

He returned to Hyderabad in 2003 and worked as Commissioner of Commercial Taxes and Subsequently as Chief Electoral Officer. In 2008, he joined the 13th Finance Commission, New Delhi as Joint Secretary. He assisted the Commission in analyzing economies of all the States and the Union, the fiscal and development challenges faced by them and setting up norms for devolution of revenues and grants.

He then worked in the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion and was responsible for formulating policy on Foreign Direct Investment and Intellectual Property Rights.

Prior to joining the IAS, he worked in the State Bank of India in a variety of Managerial positions and specialized in lending to SMES.

Mr. V. Bhaskar obtained his Masters in Physics from the University of Delhi and Masters in Public Administration from Harvard University. He is a Certified Associate of the Indian Institute of Bankers.

Mr. Sutirtha Bhattacharya, IAS, has been nominated as Director on the Board of the company by the Government of Andhra Pradesh. Presently, he is the Principal Secretary to Government of Andhra Pradesh, Infrastructure and Investment Department.

Mr. Sutirtha Bhattacharya, is from the Indian Administrative Service of 1985 Batch. He is a Physics Graduate.

Prior to this assignment, he was Principal Secretary to Government of Andhra Pradesh, Energy Department.

Mr. Alok Shekhar, IAS, has been nominated as Director on the Board of the company by the Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India. He presently is the Director, Ministry of Civil Aviation, Government of India.

Mr. Alok Shekhar is a Graduate in Civil Engineering from IIT, Kanpur. After graduation in 1992, he joined the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) in 1994. He was allotted the Punjab Cadre, where he has worked till September 2008. He has held various positions in Punjab Government, which includes Director General of School Education, Registrar - Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana and Deputy Commissioner of three Districts.

He has done Masters in Public Administration from Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University, USA in 2008.
 
He joined the Ministry of Civil Aviation in September, 2008.

Mr. V. Somasundaram, started his career in the year 1985 as Aerodrome Officer on selection through UPSC in the erstwhile Civil Aviation Department at Mumbai.

He served as an active Radar Controller and as an Instructor for Air Traffic Controllers at Mumbai.

His services in Air Traffic Management deservedly gained recognition and acclaim from ATC fraternity when he was assigned the onerous task of Project Management of India’s first ATC Modernisation programme at Mumbai and successfully accomplished the mission.

In the year 2002, he moved to Corporate Headquarters at New Delhi and served as General Manager (ATM) and later as Executive Director (ATM) and was actively involved in development of new ATM systems for India and their implementation as part of AAI’s ambitious plans of CNS/ATM modernization.

He is also serving as a Member of India-Europe Union Aviation Cooperation Program Indo-US Aviation Cooperation program and is the Indian focal point for Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation, CANSO.

He has contributed immensely in the deliberations for preparation of road-map for CNS-ATM up gradation in India and has provided professional inputs to various committees like Roy Paul Committee and Ajay Prasad Committee.

He became a Board Member of Airports Authority of Indian in October 2010 as Member (Air Navigation Services) spearheading AAIs initiatives in modernizing CNS/ATM infrastructure in line with ICAO plans for enhancing safety, Efficiency and capacity of Airports and Airspace.

He is currently holding additional portfolio of Member (Finance) of AAI.

He has the unique privilege of being Board member in various JVC Airports like DIAL, BIAL, HIAL and MIAL.

Prof. Rigas Doganis is a renowned aviation consultant and strategy adviser to airlines, airports, banks and governments. He is Chairman of the prestigious European Aviation Club in Brussels. In September 2003, he was appointed to the Board of South African Airways as a non-executive Director, a position he held till 2006. Since then he has been on the Board of Easy Jet.

He graduated from the London School of Economics (LSE). He carried out postgraduate studies in air transport at the Sorbonne in Paris and at the LSE. This was followed by a Doctorate in Air Transport also at the LSE. He is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society.

He is also Visiting Professor at the College of Aeronautics, Cranfield University and former Chairman/CEO of Olympic Airline in Athens. He has authored several books on Airline/Airport economics and management.

Mr.R.S.S.L.N Bhaskaradu, is a Director on the Board of the company. Mr.Bhaskaradu holds engineering degree in Electrical and has a history of remarkable accomplishments and effective management and leadership skills spanning 43 years in the industry.

He has served over 21 years at Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited. During his tenure in BHEL he was involved in the development and implementation of large power projects all over the country.
He has served for 16 years at Maruti Udyog Limited (MUL). He held the post of Managing director of Maruti Udyog Limited. His involvement with MUL had been since its inception and he had played a keyrole in the organisation's good performance and achievement results since 1983.

He has also served as a Member/Chairman of the Public Enterprises Selection Board of the Government of India.

Malaysia Airports Holdings Berhad have nominated Dato’ Che Azmi bin Murad as an Alternate Director to Tan Sri Bashir Ahmad bin Abdul Majid.

Dato’ Che Azmi is presently the Senior General Manager, Operations Services, MAHB. He was involved in the opening of KLIA in 1998 as Head of Operations, Malaysia Airports (Sepang) Sdn Bhd.
He is currently, the Chairman of Airport Council International (ACI), World Facilitation and Services Standing Committee.

G.B.S. Raju entered the family business in 1996 at the age of 22. Through these years, he has held key portfolios in various companies of the GMR Group.

Initially, he played a crucial role in shaping the overall strategy and positioning of the organisation. He then took on the development and implementation of various projects of the Group. He was instrumental in installing India’s first and the world’s largest floating barge-mounted Power Plant—GMR Energy Ltd, Mangalore.

He successfully steered the Group’s foray into the Highways business and the Group is now one of the leading Highway developers of the country. G.B.S. Raju, as Group CFO, also led the Group’s maiden IPO in 2006 through GMR Infrastructure.

As Chairman, Corporate and International Business, he is responsible for Human Resources, Strategic Finance, Corporate & Strategic Planning (CSP), Central Procurement and Corporate Communications of the Group. He is also responsible for the International Business Division, Sabiha Gokcen Airport and other Corporate functions such as Corporate IT and Corporate Integration, to name a few.