ITC Chairman YC Deveshwar passes away at 72

The longest serving ITC Chairman YC Deveshwar passed away on May 11. He was 72 and an alumnus of IIT Delhi. He joined ITC in 1968 and he took the reigns as executive chairman in 1996.

The Economic Times reported that ITC’s non-cigarette FMCG business revenue was Rs 11,328 crore in FY18 and the gross profit of the business was Rs 164 crore.

Sanjiv Puri, the Managing Director put out an official statement on 11 May.

In his statement, he wrote “We deeply mourn the passing away of Mr Y C Deveshwar, Chairman ITC. In this hour of profound grief and sorrow, we recall with respect and pride the legendary stewardship he provided to ITC over two decades as its Chairman. He was conferred the Padma Bhushan by the Government of India and Mr Deveshwar passionately championed the cause for sustainable and inclusive growth and this vision drove ITC to pursue business models that today supports over 6 million livelihoods.”

Puri also mentioned in the statement that Harvard Business Review ranked him as the 7th best performing CEO in the world. He elaborates that “his leadership transformed ITC into a multi business conglomerate with a robust portfolio of front-ranking businesses in FMCG, hotels, paperboards & paper, packaging and agri-business. His vision to make societal value creation, the bedrock of corporate strategy also led ITC to become the only company in the world to be carbon positive, water positive and solid waste positive for over a decade.”