Sanjiv Goenka

Some Lesser Known Facts About Sanjiv Goenka

• Sanjiv Goenka belongs to a Rajasthani Marwari family of businessmen.

• After completing his bachelor’s degree, he started working at Deccan Fibre in Hyderabad, a fibreglass unit, established by his father.

• In 1984, he became the deputy managing director of Dunlop India Ltd. He worked there for almost four years.

• On 30 October 1986, he was appointed as the director of Phillips Carbon Black Limited.

• When he was 26 years old, he started working at his father’s company RPG Group.

  

• In 1989, he took over the electricity generation company ‘The Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation (India) Limited’ and renamed it as ‘CESC Limited.’ He acquired the company against his father’s wish. In 2011, the company became a flagship of the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group.

• Goenka assumed the position of the director of Spencer And Company Limited on 5 May 1989.

• In 1991, he was appointed director of India’s oldest music label company ‘Saregama India Limited.’

• He was appointed as the director of Spencer International Hotels Limited on 29 September 1999.

• Sanjiv Goenka became the youngest President of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in April 2001. He was a member of the CII National Council on Corporate Governance and Regulatory Affairs for the year 2013–14.

• He has also been the youngest President of the Indian Chamber of Commerce (ICC).

• He has been a member of the National Foundation for Corporate Governance.

• In 2002, he became the chairman of the board of governors at IIT-Kharagpur. He remained in the position for four straight terms. He has also been the head of the board of governors at IIT-Gandhinagar.

• In 2010, his father decided to divide his business group ‘RPG Group’ among his sons Sanjiv and Harsh Goenka after which he founded the multinational conglomerate ‘RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group’ (RPSG Group) on 13 July 2011.

• The RPSG Group includes power and energy businesses, carbon black manufacturing, retail, IT-enabled services, FMCG, media and entertainment, infrastructure and education.

• He acquired CESC Ltd, Phillips Carbon Black Ltd, Spencer’s Retail Ltd, and Saregama India Ltd upon the division of RPG Group.

• In the field of entertainment and media, the RPSG Group has Open magazine, Fortune India magazine, and digital news player Editorji, under its flagship.

• Some other companies owned by him under the RPSG Group include Nature’s Basket, Spencer’s Retail, and Harrisons Malayalam Limited.

  

• He was made the chairman of International Management Institute, New Delhi in 2010.

• He has also been the chairman of the Board of Directors of Woodlands Medical Centre Limited in Kolkata.

• On 3 December 2012, he was made the director of Firstsource Solutions Limited, a  business process management company.

• In 2016, he bought the franchise of the IPL team ‘Rising Pune Supergiants.’

• In 2020, the Mohun Bagan Football Club (India) signed an ownership deal with ATK led by Sanjiv Goenka, after he bought 80 per cent of stakes of Mohun Bagan FC. Later, both the clubs were merged and named as ATK Mohun Bagan.

  

• A year later, he bought the IPL team Lucknow Supergiants for Rs 7,090 crore.

  

• In 2022, he formed the South African professional Twenty20 franchise cricket team ‘Durban’s Super Giants,’ which played for the first time in SA20 tournament in the 2022–23 season.

•  He has been the President of the All-India Management Association (AIMA). He has also been appointed as the Honourary Consul of Canada in Kolkata.

• He considers the chief of All India Trinamool Congress party Mamata Banerjee to be one of her close confidantes.

• He is a sports lover and has a keen interest several sports such as football, cricket, lawn tennis, and table tennis.