Gautam Adani

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Gautam Adani

Born 24 June 1962 (age 50)
Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
Residence Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
Nationality Indian
Occupation Founder and Chairman of theAdani Group
Known for the success of Adani Group
Net worth US$ 3.9 billion (2012)
[1]

Religion Jainism
Spouse(s) Priti Adani
Children Karan Adani
Jeet Adani
Gautam Adani (Gujarati: ; born 24 June 1962) is an Indian entrepreneur and self-made
billionaire who is the Chairman of Adani Group. The Adani Group is a globally integrated infrastructure
player with businesses spanning coal trading, coal mining, oil & gas exploration, ports, multi-
modal logistics, power generation & transmission and gas distribution.
[2]
With a business experience of
more than 33 years, Gautam Adani is a first generation entrepreneur who has led the Adani group from a
modest background to create a $8 billion professionally-managed empire in a relatively short period of
time.
[3]
He is said to be among the 100 most influential businessmen worldwide in shipping trade and
developing shipping related infrastructure. He has also been recognized for establishing the
modern Mundra port which was selected as the best port in 2006 by the oldest and the most influential
British publication for shipping business, Lloyd.
[4]


Contents
[hide]
1 Early Life
2 Personal Life
3 Career or Business
4 Activism
5 References
6 External links
[edit]Early Life
Gautam Adani was born into a Gujarati Jain family on 24th June 1962 in the Seth ni Pol area located in
Ratanpol in Ahmedabad. He is the son of Shantilal and Shanta Adani and has seven siblings. His parents
had migrated from the town of Tharad in the northern part ofGujarat in search of livelihood.
[edit]Personal Life
Gautam Adani is married to Dr Priti Adani who is a Bachelor in dental surgery and the Chairperson of Adani
Foundation, the CSR arm of the Adani Group. They have two sons. The elder one, Karan Adani is a
graduate from the Purdue University, USA and is presently the Executive Director of Adani Ports and SEZ,
recently got married with Paridhi and the younger son is Jeet Adani.
[5]

[6]

[edit]Career or Business
Choosing not to join his fathers textile unit in Ahmedabad, Gautam Adani instead preferred to move to
Mumbai to try his luck. He opened his innings by working as a diamond sorter at Mahindra Brothers for 2
years and then went on to set up his own diamond brokerage business in Mumbai, India. The trading
initiative was a success. The young Gautam made his first million within a year, at the age of 20, a big deal
during the 80s.
This success caught the eye of Mahasukh Adani, Gautams elder brother and a self-made entrepreneur.
Mahasukh called Gautam back to their hometown Ahmedabad - a city in the western part of India, to run
his newly purchased plastic factory.
Soon, Gautam began commodity trading by importing Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), a key raw material for
manufacturing plastic. While working at his brother's plastics unit, Gautam Adani gained valuable working
experience as he learnt the intricacies of commodity trade.
[4]

The Adani Group had a quiet beginning, but Gautams entrepreneurial and ambitious vision, and rigorous
hard work along with his talented and experienced management team made Adani Group one of the fastest
growing professionally managed conglomerates in India.
[5]

In 1988, he established Adani Exports Limited (now known as the Adani Enterprises Ltd), the flagship
company of the Adani Group, that traded in a variety of power and agricultural commodities. The economic
liberalization in 1991 fuelled the rapid growth of the business and the huge profitability of Adani Exports
provided further capital for Gautam Adani to expand his business.
In 1993, the Gujarat government invited private companies to run the Mundra Port and in 1995 the contract
was given to Adani Group. Today, Mundra Port is the largest Private Sector port in India, with capability of
handling close to 80 million tonnes of cargo per annum.
Gautam Adani is also the Founder and Promoter of Adani Power Ltd (APL), a power business arm of Adani
Group. Adani Power has delivered thermal power plant with capacity of 4620 MW, which has been a sole
reason for the company to gain the prestige of being the largest private thermal power producer of the
country.
Adani Power has its head office in Ahmedabad, Gujarat and is ranked #334 in top companies in India in
Fortune India 500 list of 2011. Adani Power enjoys the status of being Indias largest solar power producer
with capacity 40MW.
At present, APL maneuvers five supercritical boilers of 660MW each at Mundra, Gujrat in addition to a
mega solar plant of 40MW at Bitta Naliya in Kutch District, Gujrat. The thermal power plant at Mundra is the
single thermal power plant in the country that has won the certification by UN under CDM. Besides, it is the
first company in India to obtain the supercritical technology.
[7]

[edit]Activism
In 1996, Gautam Adani set up the Adani Foundation as the Corporate Social Responsibility arm of the
Adani Group for undertaking activities to ensure sustainable development and create harmony with people
residing in the neighborhood of the Group's operations. The Group invests ~1% of profit in community
initiatives through the Adani Foundation. Adani Foundation operates in Gujarat, Madhya
Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Himachal Pradesh and runs projects in four key areas:
[5]

[8]

Education- especially primary education (No citation provided)
Medical- clinics (No citation provided)
Environmental Protection- typically at the local community level (No citation provided)
After Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was unceremoniously dropped as the keynote speaker at an
event at the Wharton Business School, one of the main sponsors of the conference, the Adani Group, has
decided it will withdraw its funding. The gesture is an apparent show of loyalty to Mr Modi; the Adani Group
is headquartered in Gujarat. Mr. Adani decided not to attend the event.