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PEOPLE
He
will surely add fizz to Coca-Cola's operations in the country. After all, Alexander
Von Behr, 41, who takes over from departing Coca-Cola India CEO, Donald
Short, has the reputation of being a trouble-shooter who, as the company's
Director, Operations (Southeast & West Asia), steered it through the
great Southeast Asian meltdown last year. ''I am excited about my new role.
We are committed to developing the industry,'' says Alexander, who has had
varied experience, with companies as diverse as tobacco giant Philip Morris
and consultancy major McKinsey & Co.. Barely a month into his new
assignment, Alexander, who is also a keen golfer, is already talking about
lobbying for excise duty rationalisation on soft drinks. Looks like he's
going to kick off his innings with a lot of fizz...
She
mixes business with pleasure. Indrani Sen, 50, Vice-President &
Media Services Director, HTA, Calcutta, juggles a busy advertising career
with her interest in painting. She draws both inspiration and material
from her surroundings-colour ads in this case. Indrani, who held an
exhibition at the Genesis Art Gallery in Calcutta last month, puts
together large collages, using colours from print ads as brushstrokes to
give shape to her flights of fancy. Says Indrani: ''Since I am surrounded
by ads the whole day, putting together collages gives me an opportunity to
combine the pleasures of my job and my long-cherished hobby of painting.''
The medium is the message...
He
is a true torch-bearer. Back in 1929, Annamalai Muthiah's great
grandfather, Raja Sir Annamalai Chettiar, founded the Annamalai University
in Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu. Today, the 37-year-old Muthiah is building ''a
worldwide learning community'' of children, in association with Futurekids
of California (US). Muthiah's Futurekids Asia, slated to take off next
month, will transform Indian schools into e-nabled ''future schools'' by
making young students computer savvy. Says the University of Colorado
alumnus: ''I want to be to able to give children the right perspective.''
His source of inspiration? His daughters, Chitra, 9, and Priya, 5. When
not running Futurekids Asia, Muthiah, a certified scuba-diver as well as
an amateur pilot, heads the San Francisco-based software consultancy
Calisys Corporation as its president and CEO. Future perfect?...
Health
for him is, literally, wealth. Pavan Nigam, 40, who co-founded
Healtheon Corporation, a health portal with a market capitalisation of $10
billion, jointly with Netscape founder Jim Clark, did so when he realised
that although one-sixth of the US economy is based on healthcare, the
$1.20-trillion industry itself is so fragmented that the Net could be a
perfect medium to solve healthcare needs. He wasn't wrong. Healtheon now
has 1,800 employees and revenues close to $100 million. Now, this ex-iitian,
an avid American football fan who has worked with Intel and Silicon
Graphics, wants to extend Healtheon's services to India, and is setting up
a centre at Hyderabad. A healthy extension of business, hopefully...
From
hawking pots and pans in the old economy, he's taken a quantum leap into
the New Economy. Saurav Adhikari, 41, who just quit his job as the
CEO of Tefal India, the French appliances major, will spearhead HCL
Infosystems' yet-unnamed Net venture. Says Saurav, who has also worked at
Hindustan Lever and PepsiCo India: ''This is the area of the future, where
exciting growth opportunities lie, and I would be a fool not to take
advantage of it.'' The only downside, says the self-confessed fitness
fanatic, is that the new job and the long commute between HCL's offices in
NOIDA and his residence in Gurgaon won't leave Saurav any time to write
and teach-both of which he loves. But the leap from frying pans straight
into cyberspace should compensate for that. |