Past Presidents

Late Mr. Subir Raha

President 2003-2006

Chairman & Managing Director, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd

Subir Raha, former CMD ONGC and former Chairman ONGC Group of Companies left for heavenly abode on 01 February, 2010.

Subir Raha, born on August 28, 1948, graduated in Electronics & Tele-communication Engineering from Jadavpur University in 1969. He was also an alumnus of the Administrative Staff College at Henley of Leeds University, UK.

He joined Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd as Chairman & Managing Director in May 2001; and separated on completion of 5 years tenure in May 2006.

ONGC achieved multiple milestones during his tenure. ONGC’s market capitalization zoomed to become the highest among all Indian Corporate. He was personally instrumental in ONGC acquiring MRPL and turning it around from almost BIFR status to the present Mini-Ratna status. He also led ONGC into aggressive exploration, especially in the deep waters of India, and initiated IOR/ EOR projects to arrest the production decline of its mature fields.

He also led ONGC from a sectoral E&P company to become an Integrated Energy Major on global scale; acquiring many equity assets overseas. He also initiated the expansion of ONGC into various value integration projects in the field of Petrochemicals, SEZ, Power, clean coal energy, and alternate sources of energy.

Under his dynamic leadership, ONGC was the first Indian Corporate to sign the Integrity Pact with Transparency International (India) Ltd in April 2006. To further improve transparency in business transactions in ONGC, he introduced IT along the entire supply chain management of ONGC. Introduction of regular meeting with Vendors, Analysts, Investors even Employees were also unique initiatives of Mr. Raha. He branded ONGC from a Govt undertaking to a global oil and gas major through series of media interactions and branding activities.

He started his career with Indian Oil Corporation Ltd, as a Management Trainee in 1970.  After a series of field and staff assignments in various disciplines, he joined the Indian Oil Board as Director (Human Resources) in June 1998.

Before joining the IndianOil Board, he also served on deputation (1996-98) with the Government of India as the Head of the Oil Coordination Committee, Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas.

Subir Raha is survived by his wife Mita, daughter Shuva and son Abhijit.

Mr. R.S.Sharma

President 2006-2011

Associate Member, Indian Institute of Bankers

Mr. R. S. Sharma was on the Board of ONGC as the CMD from May 24, 2006, to January 31, 2011. Mr. Sharma has been credited to have brought in numerous business improvements in ONGC; leveraging strengths to build up its fortunes over the last few years. In these five years, he played an important role in providing value dimensions to ONGC’s business, which grew from less than 6 billion US dollars to around 20 billion US dollars. He was also on the Board of ONGC Videsh Ltd. (OVL), India’s biggest multinational, before taking over as Director (F) on the Board of Parent ONGC. Sharma played a pivotal role in the financial engineering of ONGC’s other subsidiary MRPL also, which was sick when ONGC acquired it. `In 2006-07, the ONGC board cleared investment proposals worth over Rs. 34,000 crores. Mr. R S Sharma is a Fellow Member of the Institute of Cost & Works Accountants of India and an Associate Member of the Indian Institute of Bankers. His run-up to this career peak commenced 35 years ago in 1972 with the Union Bank of India. After serving there in Credit Appraisal and related spheres for a decade, the banker relocated to Baghdad, to head the Finance function of another public enterprise The Indian Road Construction Company. The next six years in the construction company (four years in the Middle East) saw him pilot many important projects single-handedly before he joined ONGC in July 1988 as Joint Director (Finance), posted at Assam. Under his stewardship, ONGC was assigned Baa1 Credit Rating, the highest-ever Credit Rating assigned by Moody’s to any Indian Corporate. Several awards have come his way, in recognition to his individual contributions like the CNBC TV-18 CFO Award 2006 for excellence in Oil and Allied services category, India’s most recognized award for excellence in the financial field. He was also conferred with India CFO Award 2005, Excellence in Finance in PSU in December 2005, by International Market Assessment (IMA), in association with BNP Paribas, Sun Micro Systems, and CNBC TV-18.

Mr. Sudhir Vasudeva

President, October 2011- May 2014

Global Compact Network India and CMD, ONGC

Mr. Sudhir Vasudeva, former President, Global Compact Network India, served as the Chairman, Managing Director at Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited until February 28, 2014, and also served as Head of its Offshore Oil & Gas Fields.

Mr. Vasudeva, a Gold Medalist Chemical Engineer from National Institute of Technology, Raipur joined ONGC in 1976. He climbed the corporate ladder steadily and joined ONGC Board as Director (Offshore) in February, 2009 and finally took over as CMD in October, 2011. Credited with many path-breaking initiatives in complex offshore project management, he has been conferred with the coveted CEPM-PMA Fellowship on Project Management in December, 2011.

With immense experience on the larger canvas of oil and gas industry, Mr. Vasudeva was quite clear on his priority: pursuing energy security for the nation by accreting and acquiring new hydrocarbon reserves, improving production from brown fields and augmenting production through fast track development of newly discovered fields.

 Mr. Vasudeva also served as Chairman of Petrotech Society, Chairperson of SPE Indian Council as well as a Director At-large in SPE International Board of Directors, the first by any Indian. A passionate technical man Mr. Vasudeva was also associated with many other professional bodies.

 A strong proponent of pursuing alternate and renewable sources of energy, Mr. Vasudeva Chaired the ONGC Energy Centre Trust. A firm believer in transparency and ethical business practices, Mr. Vasudeva embraced the Ten Principles of United Nations Global Compact since the beginning of this initiative in India.



Governing Council

Mr. Arun Kumar Singh

President

Chairman & CEO, ONGC Group

Mr. Arun Kumar Singh has assumed the charge of Chairman, ONGC on 7 December 2022. Mr. Singh is also the Chairman, ONGC Group Companies viz: ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL), Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL), ONGC Petro Additions Limited (OPaL), ONGC Tripura Power Corporation Limited (OTPC), Mangalore SEZ Limited (MSEZ), Petronet MHB Limited (PMHBL) and ONGC Energy Centre Trust (OECT). The ONGC Group is having dominance in the E&P sector in India and abroad and is having significant presence in the refining, petrochemicals, power and renewables. He is also on the Board of Petronet LNG Ltd. (PLL).

Mr. Singh is an industry stalwart bringing with him extraordinary rich portfolio of diverse roles in the Oil & Gas industry, spanning close to four decades. He is a Mechanical Engineer with 1st rank from National Institute of Technology, Patna.

Prior to joining ONGC, Mr. Arun Kumar Singh was the Chairman & MD of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), a ‘Maharatna’ Public Sector Enterprise and a Fortune Global 500 Company. While with Bharat Petro Resources Ltd (BPRL), a wholly owned Subsidiary of BPCL, engaged in the exploration and production of Oil & Gas, largely overseas, he held the position of the President (Africa & Australia). Mr. Singh was also the Chairman of Indraprastha Gas Ltd. (IGL) a Joint Venture (JV) City Gas Distribution (CGD) Company, listed on Indian bourses.

Mr. Arun Kumar Singh is the President of Global Compact Network India (GCNI), the Indian Local Network of the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) which provides a robust platform for Indian businesses, Academic Institutions and Civil Society organizations for embracing Universal Ten Principles of Global Compact Network and facilitates in taking forward the UN Agenda on sustainability through balancing the three dimensions of sustainable development, i.e. economic, social and environmental.



Admin Committee



Secretariat

Dr. Somnath Singh

Deputy Director

Dr. Somnath is a thorough development Professional as well as an academic practitioner with over 22 years demonstrative experience of working with different sectors which include, Government, corporate, CSOs, Academia and UN system and his innovations brought positive changes in organization’s operations, Govt machinery as well as in target communities.

In 22 years of service in the development sector, Dr. Somnath worked in different roles and capacities ranging from the position of program Officer to the Program Director and Head of the programmes. His area of expertise lies in Public Health, ESG, Women and Child development, Gender Equality, Livelihood, UN ten Principles (Human Rights, Labor Standard, Environment and Anti-Corruption), SDGs and City development programmes like Climate Smart City, AMRUT City and Smart City Mission of GoI.

Dr. Somnath was recognized for his various initiatives and innovations while working with Ministries and multiple national programmes of Govt of India and UN organizations like USAID, UNAIDS, UNDP, FHI and The Union.

He is specialized in developing and executing strategic interventions through multi-stakeholder engagement and skilled at organization leadership, Project designing & management, Resource mobilization, Stakeholders management, Trainings and Research.

Currently, at UN Global Compact Network India (UNGCNI) Dr. Somnath, in the capacity of Programme Manager for India, is leading the Centre of Excellence for Governance, Ethics and Transparency (CEGET) and heading diverse initiatives of the organization around Corporate Governance, Health Governance, Environmental Governance, Urban Governance, Anti-Corruption and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Dr. Somnath believes that Public Private Partnership and collective action are the key for the success of each development initiative /issue and hence he practices it and gains success in all his professional and personal endeavors.

Regarding academic background, Dr. Somnath has completed his graduation and Master in Social Work from Delhi University. Though he stepped into the service sector in 2000 he kept his ambition of learning and enhancing knowledge about society and business behavior live, he gained master degrees in Sociology from Annamalai University, In Rural Development from Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and In Business Administration (MBA) from Sikkim Manipal University in India. In December 2020, he was awarded a doctorate degree in Management by OPJS university, Churu, Rajasthan/India.

Email idsomnath.singh@globalcompact.in

Srishti Gautam

Programme Officer

Srishti holds a Master’s degree in Diplomacy, Law and Business (MADLB) from OP. Jindal Global University and a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science honors from Indraprastha College for Women, University of Delhi. She has wide research experience in the field of Gender Equality, Water and Sanitation, Human Rights, Foreign Affairs and Tribal Livelihoods.

Prior to GCNI, she has worked with UNESCO on Sustainable Development Projects and Peace and Conflict Resolution, along with having a 1.5 years’ experience with the Peacebuilding Projects and Rohingya Human Rights Initiative in imparting early childhood development education, refugee crisis and mitigation. Her qualifications are reinforced by virtual courses such as ‘Global Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility: Be Sustainable”. Driven by interest in the development sector and international affairs, she has published five articles in reputed journals such as International Journal of Political Science and Governance.

Apart from this, she has volunteered for street children and underprivileged community in imparting Quality Education and Livelihood through organizations such as Salaam Baalak Trust, UTSAH NGO, Smile Foundation and ‘Project Rakshan’ on Anti-Child Labor Campaign.

Hailing from the Northeaster part on India, Srishti has worked for the Rabha Tribal community and other social issues and implementation projects in the area such as ‘Clean Water Availability and Sustainability in the smart city of Guwahati’, along with conducting primary research on the practice of Witch-Hunting and the Stigmatization of Women in Assam.

Currently at Global Compact, she is working as a ‘Programme Officer’ in providing support to the members in implementing the 10 principles of SDGs in India.

Email idsrishti.gautam@globalcompact.in