Shankar Vanavarayar

A NexGen leader of Sakthi Group, keenly focussing on Education, Industry, Entrepreneurship, Social Impact, Culture & Heritage.
He is the President of Kumaraguru Educational Institutions with over 7000 students in the field of Engineering, Management, Agriculture, Liberal Arts & Science and of Suddha Sanmarga Nilayam with students of over 5000 from humble backgrounds. He is also the Executive Director of ABT Industries Ltd, having Dairy Processing Business & Automobiles in association with TATA Motors.
He founded Coimbatore Innovation and Business Incubator, brand Forge. As a past National Chairman of CII Yi, he was involved in creation of Commonwealth Asia Alliance of Young Entrepreneurs; represented India & spoke at the Global Young Leaders in the BOAO Forum, China; Commonwealth Business Forum, London; CHOGM Perth Summit.He is a Fellow of The Aspen’s Kamalnayan Bajaj Fellowship. He created The Vanavarayar Foundation with a vision to protect, preserve, portray the Heritage & Values of our Culture.

Company Profile:

Sakthi Group, established in 1921, is a 2.0 billion US$ Industrial conglomerate having presence in Educational Institutions, Sugar, SG Iron foundry, Industrial Alcohol, Textiles, Transport, Finance, Dairy, Coffee Estates and Soya processing. Sakthi group runs numerous charitable institutions in the areas of health sector, schools and colleges.

ABT Industries Ltd and Kumaraguru institutions are flagship entities in the Sakthi Group, founded by Padmabhushan Dr. Mahalingam. ABT Industries has two divisions, Dairy & Automobiles, with annual turnover of Rs.500 Crores. Auto Division has long standing relationship with TATA Motors in automobile business, from 12 locations across Tamil Nadu. Dairy Division set up with a state of art Dairy Plant. Futher it was expanded, and a new Skimmed Milk Powder plant was commissioned. The Company has implemented a project for production of value-added Dairy products covered under GOl’s ” Integrated Cold chain and Value addition Infrastructure project”. Its operations extended to states of Tamilnadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra and Telengana, besides export of Ghee to Middle East, Singapore, and Malaysia.

The Kumaraguru Institutions established in the year 1984 includes Kumaraguru College of Technology, College of Liberal Arts and Science, Business School, and Institute of Agriculture. The institution was founded with the vision to transform India through education.