Board of directors

Essar Ports Limited

Essar Ports Limited

Rajiv Agarwal
Chairman of board, CEO and Managing director

Dilip J. Thakkar
Independent director

Capt. B. S. Kumar
Independent director

Amit Bapna
Chief financial officer & Wholetime director

Nikhil Naik
Nominee director

Essar Ports Limited

Essar Bulk Terminal (Salaya) Limited

Rajiv Agarwal
Chairman of board, CEO and Managing director

Capt. B. S. Kumar
Independent director

Amit Bapna
Chief financial officer & Wholetime director

Nikhil Naik
Nominee director

Priya Chakravarty
Director

Bhaven Bhatt
Resident director

Dr. Jose Paul

U Venkat Rao
Director

Stanlow Terminals

Stanlow Terminals

Prashant Ruia
Director, Essar capital

Rajiv Agarwal
CEO & MD, Essar Ports

Mike Gaynon
CEO, Stanlow terminals

Deepak Maheshwari
CEO, Essar oil (UK) limited

Satish Vasooja
CEO, Essar oil (UK) limited

Mr. Rajiv Agarwal
Chairman of board, CEO and Managing director

Rajiv Agarwal is the Chairman of board and Managing director of Essar Ports Ltd. Essar Ports is one of the largest private sector port & terminal developer and operator in India. Rajiv is a Chartered Accountant with over 38 years of experience and has held various leadership positions in industries like ports, shipping, telecom, retail and Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO).

Under him the ports business of Essar has grown manifold increasing port capacity in India alone from 46 MMTPA in fy10 to 110 MMTPA presently and expanding. Under his astute leadership the company also saw successful divestment worth more than USD 2 billion.

He is recipient of Port Personality of the Year 2019 at International Bulk Journal Awards, Maritime personality of the year’ 17 at Gujarat Star Awards and port personality of the year’ 17 at Maritime & Logistics awards. He has also been conferred with Maritime Standard Excellence Award’ 16 in Dubai for his contributions to maritime sector.  In the past he has also won the CEO of the year award in 2009 at Asia Retail Congress and was among the finalists for Asia Business Leadership Awards, 2015 by CNBC.

Mr. Dilip J. Thakkar
Independent director

DIN 00007339

Dilip J. Thakkar, a practicing chartered accountant by profession since last 52 years is a partner of M/s. Jayantilal Thakkar & Co. and Jayantilal Thakkar associates, chartered accountants, Mumbai. Dilip Thakkar has vast experience in the fields of accounts, finance, taxation, FEMA etc.

Dilip Thakkar is also a director on the board of various Indian public limited companies.

Mr. Capt. B. S. Kumar
Independent director

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B.S Kumar has vast experience of over 4 decades in the ports and shipping sector during which he has held key positions in the industry.

B.S Kumar has played a key role in the development of the Paradip port on the east coast of India and was also associated with Dhamra port, Hazira port, Finolex captive jetty – Ratnagiri, trustee/director on the board of Mumbai Port Trust and Paradip Port Trust besides being associated with Indian national shipowners association, steamship mutual bermuda club – UK, classification societies, visa comtrade ltd- Kolkata, etc.

B.S Kumar is a shipping & logistics consultant/adviser and also on the panel of arbitrators under Indian council of arbitrators. He is also an exclusive agent for ABEL pumps GMBH, Germany in India.

Mr. Amit Bapna
Chief financial officer & Wholetime director

Amit Bapna is an accomplished professional with over 21 years of experience in corporate finance and treasury, accounting, taxation, incubating and developing businesses, mergers & acquisitions, valuations & structuring and investor relations. Prior to Essar, he was president and chief operating officer of Reliance Capital Limited, overseeing capital allocation and overall strategy and business plans for Reliance capital’s key businesses, including reliance nippon life asset management ltd., Reliance general insurance co. ltd., Reliance life insurance co. ltd. etc. Prior to Reliance Capital Ltd., Amit Bapna has held leadership positions at Reliance Nippon life asset management ltd. and Reliance industries ltd.

Mr. Nikhil Naik
Nominee director

DIN 00202779

Nikhil Naik has 36 years of experience in the logistics, private equity and port sectors. His competencies include negotiating and concluding deals in challenging environments, analysis of financials and quick understanding of areas for improvement, nurturing, advising management of businesses; building lasting customer relationships and networking with external agencies and the government.

Priya Chakravarty
Director

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Priya Chakravarty is integral to refining HR practices at Essar, has over two decades of HR experience spanning industries from manufacturing to IT. She was previously the chief people officer at hometown & ezone, driving transformational HR initiatives. Her earlier association with Essar had her in senior roles, including head of International HR. Additionally, she volunteered with the akanksha foundation and has presented papers at international conferences.

Mr. Bhaven Bhatt

Bhaven Bhatt has 28 years of rich experience in international trade and government relations. He has master’s degree in geology and MBA (marketing). At Essar, he has held multiple roles including being part of the team for acquisition of new trinity incorporated, USA. He has been part of Essar Ports and is associated with EBTSL port since its inception. He is Resident Director – corporate relations Gujarat for group level activities. Previously, was associated with adani exports and metdist industries ltd.

Dr. Jose Paul

Dr. Jose Paul graduated with an M.A. (Political Science) from the university of Mysore and has done his PHD in port management from the university of Wales, Cardiff, United Kingdom. He is also a Fellow of the British institute of management (FBIM) and the chartered institute of transport, London (FCIT).

He has also published several papers on port and shipping in national and international magazines and journals. Dr. Paul has won many awards and prizes, to mention a few, first prize and the “Akiyama award” in the international essay competition organized by the international association of ports  and harbours, Tokyo, Japan in 1986, Silver medal and a scroll at the world port conference held in Seoul, South Korea in may 1987 and life time achievement award instituted by exim india shipping times received at Taj coromandel, Chennai on 31st July 2010 from the secretary (shipping), government of India, for significant contribution made in the maritime sector.

He was the Deputy chairman, New Mangalore Port Trust from 1989 to 1994, Deputy chairman & Acting chairman, Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, New Mumbai from 1994 to 1997, Chairman, Mormugao Port Trust, Goa from 1997 to 2001 and member, Executive council, Indian maritime university, Chennai for the period 1st April 2009- 31st march 2011. He was the only speaker invited from India by the International Association of Ports and harbours to speak at the 21st World Port Conference held in May 1999 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and again at the 22nd world port conference held in May 2001 in Montreal, Canada.

On the invitation of UNCTAD, Dr. Paul attended the expert group meeting on Globalisation of port logistics: Opportunities and challenges for developing countries held on 12th december 2007. He was also a part-time lecturer in the department of maritime studies, university of Wales, Cardiff, UK (1985 –1987) and visiting professor to kellogg school of Management, Evanston, Illinois, US and prepared a profile of a research project on the US legislation on advance presentation of vessel cargo manifest (may to july 2003). He is also a director on the board of various Indian public limited companies.

Mr. U Venkat Rao

U. Venkat Rao is a Mechanical engineer and MBA with over 30 years of experience in the ports and logistics industry. U. Venkat Rao has served in logistics and port sectors with leading companies such as N.R. International limited, Mundra port and SEZ ltd., and Krishnapatnam port company limited.

Venkat has been associated with the Essar group for over 12years. During his first stint with Essar, he was the whole time director Essar Bulk Terminal and CEO of Essar Bulk Terminal Pradip Limited, Odisha and was actively involved in the development of the port project at Pradip. In his second stint currently, he is working on various new projects and business initiatives as the CEO of Essar Bulk Terminal (Salaya) Limited.

Prashant Ruia
Director, Essar capital

Prashant is part of the second generation of the Ruia family that founded Essar. Essar was founded in 1969 by his father, Shashi Ruia and uncle Ravi Ruia.

Prashant has been an integral part of EGFL’s operations and management since 1985 and has been a key driver of the fund’s growth, diversification and value creation both within India and internationally. He is respected for his project execution skills, financial expertise and people management capabilities.

Prashant holds key positions on several prestigious regulatory and professional boards. He is a member of the UK India business council and a member of the India-Indonesia CEO’s forum.

Mike Gaynon
CEO, Stanlow terminals

Michael Gaynon was promoted to Chief executive officer of Stanlow terminals limited (STL) on 1st July 2021.

Michael was a core part of the STL team since Essar first developed plans for and set up the subsidiary infrastructure and distribution company and has a wealth of experience in the oil and energy sector, working internationally across Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, prior to joining Essar at Stanlow in 2011.

As the UK transitions to a low carbon energy economy, Mike will oversee STL’s focus on delivering the energy storage solutions of the future, drive third party business growth and continue to provide EOUK with critical infrastructure support.

Deepak Maheshwari
CEO, Essar oil (UK) limited

Chief Executive Officer Deepak Maheshwari has more than 25 years Senior leadership experience, across the utilities, energy, and infrastructure sectors in Europe and Asia and will further strengthen corporate governance of the company within an ESG framework.

Deepak was most recently Chief financial officer and head of strategy at adani ports and special economic zone limited, India’s largest commercial multi-port operator. He was previously CFO of Essar energy limited.

As CEO, Deepak will work closely with the Essar oil UK board on the delivery of a number of strategic transition projects which are aimed at making Stanlow a low carbon refinery to meet the future energy needs of the UK.

Satish Vasooja
CFO, Essar oil (UK) limited

Satish Vasooja is a qualified chartered accountant with over 25 years of experience and has worked across a number of different industry sectors for leading companies such Panasonic, Hutchison Whampoa and HCL technologies. He has been with Essar oil UK since the company acquired the Stanlow manufacturing complex from shell in 2011 and has fulfilled a number of different finance roles during that period, including that of CFO for Stanlow terminals limited.