Mr. Ashok Sinha, an alumnus of IIT Kanpur and IIM Bangalore, is often referred to as the quintessential refinery man with a never-say-die attitude. Having spent 33 years at BPCL, he is reckoned as the force behind turning it into a global exploration company. It was during his tenure as the chairman and MD of the company that BPCL ventured outside India and bought assets in Brazil and Mozambique. His well-thought out strategy is now paying off. He is a recipient of numerous prestigious global awards including the Distinguished Alumni Awards from IIT Kanpur and IIM Bangalore.
“The major essence of change lies in its pace."
Mr. Ashok Sinha received his B.Tech. in Electrical Engineering from IIT Kanpur in 1973. From October 1973 to July 1975, he worked with International Computers Pvt. Ltd. In 1977, he obtained a postgraduate diploma in Management, with specialization in Finance, from IIM Bangalore. In August 1977, he joined Bharat Petroleum Corp. Ltd. (BPCL) and served the company for more than 33 years. During his long illustrious career at BPCL, he occupied several key positions including Director of Finance for 10 years from 1995, and Managing Director & Chairman for 5 years from 2005.
At BPCL, he will forever be remembered for his audacious move of buying EnCana Brasil and tapping the London financial markets to raise $100 million for the acquisition; it was aimed at turning BPCL into a global exploration company. He undertook projects like Caliber, aimed at ensuring proper succession plans, grooming people to the required potential and ironing out constraints; Crescendo, conceptualized to integrate the entire organization through supply chain management, starting from demand planning to the actual buying of crude for refineries; Aryabhata, aimed at promoting progressive ideas and inputs regularly and keep all processes and projects in sync.
Mr. Sinha has served on the board of several oil and gas refineries such as Kochi Refineries, Indraprastha Gas, Bharat Oman Refineries, Petronet LNG and Numaligarh Refinery. On 11 July 2012, he was appointed an Independent Director of CMC Ltd., a subsidiary of TCS. He is a member of the Board of Directors at Axis Mutual Fund since September 2012 and an independent director of Cipla since July 2013.
Mr. Sinha has won several prestigious awards during his lifetime. In 2001, he received the India Chief Financial Officer Award for Information and Knowledge Management by the Economic Intelligence Unit (EIU) India and American Express in recognition of his financial excellence and achievements outside the traditional role of a CFO. He is also a recipient of the CIO-100 Award (USA), 1999. This award recognizes the top 100 firms worldwide that are most likely to excel in the 21st century because of their innovative practices leveraging people and technology.
