Curriculum Vitae KJ

PROFILE

Accomplished Top management professional with 33+ years of cross-industry and cross-functional experience and in handling group level operations. Proven expertise in leadership, crisis and financial management, strategy, operations, and human capital development, Strong track record in driving business growth, navigating complexity, and aligning teams for performance. Skilled in strategic management, governance, decision making and organizational transformation. IT-savvy, socially responsible, and committed to delivering sustainable value.

KEY SKILLS

Financial Management, Operations / Quality, Governance, Business Development, Key Account Management, Human Capital Management including implementing OKR’s, KPI’s, Balanced scorecard, Strategy development & execution

ACADEMIC QUALIFICATIONS

Ph.d. in Management

UNZA 2021-2024

PGDM ( ~ MBA)

Xavier Institute of Management, India 1999-2002

Bachelor of Engineering - Mechanical National Institute of Technology, Trichy, India 1988-1992

(Formerly Regional Engineering College, Trichy)

CERTIFICATES

Balanced Score card Master Professional 2015

Six Sigma Green Belt Certificate Holder 2008

Chief Operating Officer 260 Brands (Seba Foods Zambia) Zambia Mar 2024- Sep 2025

Leading FMCG Operations including Production, Supply Chain, Quality, HR, Logistics, Administration.
Cross functional collaboration with Sales and Finance.
Strategy development and direction to Excellence as Exco member.
Achieved FSSC 22000 V6 certification through rigorous process controls that the team failed to achieve previous audits
Successfully negotiated Project contracts for construction of Infrastructure for expansion
Introduced Skills matrix concept for whole team , Initiated OKRs for my team
Personally conducted training programs on Kaizen, Personality development, Johari Window
Handled Union matters on wages and other matters , developed a grading system for the hierarchy and revised HR policies
Reporting to : CEO ( shareholder)

No of Direct Reports:

Heads of Supply Chain - Upstream

Head of Supply Chain - Downstream

Head of Quality

Heads of Plant ( Food)

Head of Plant ( Snacks)

Head of Plant ( Beverages)

Head of HR

Administration

No of Indirect Reports - 600 employees

Nature of Operation: 24 x 7

Group COO, Astro Holdings ltd / Director, Smart Africa Zambia Feb 2022- Nov 22 & Nov 22 - Mar 2024

Brief tenure with Astro Holdings handling 22 companies in diverse sectors of the group. Took up an entrepreneurial consultancy assignments in Steel industry with Smart Africa along with a sabbatical to conclude family commitments and to complete my Phd in Strategic management.

Achieved financial closure by tactfully handling and thwarting a take over bid and saving the Group’s Lime plant operations resulting in successful restructuring of a $xxmn debt.
Achieved 100% of targets for automotive division by personally handling key accounts and closing sales. Personally closed a $180,000 deal for four trucks within two months of joining
Sold the first Hyundai Pallisade, a premium car model at Launch
Achieved completion to 70% of pending civil projects ( Astro works) from levels of 5% in a period of 6 months for the construction division
Reduced process time by more than 70% by implementing a business process rectification in workflow for approvals for many divisions
Reporting to : Chairman, Astro Holdings Group
Direct Reports
Heads of Yeti Motors & Auto care(Automotive division)
Head of Astro Works ( Construction)
Head of Desco Engineering ( HVAC)
Head of Ronac Steels ( Hardware)
Heads of Furniture Divisions ( parallel reporting)
Head of Hospitality divisions
Head of HR
Head of Institutional Sales
Head of Administration
Indirect Reports: 365 personnel
Nature of work : Regular

Group Managing Director Specialised Systems Ltd

& SCI Zambia Limited and Twiga Chemicals Zambia Limited

Zambia Jul 2012 – Jan 2022

Handling the Zambia operations of the AJ Group handling diverse portfolios including Healthcare, Security solutions, Information Technology / ICT, Agrochemicals, Office Automation, Real estate

Finalized agreement from scratch for a $30mn Greenfield Hospital project in tie up with a leading International Hospital Chain (from India)
Handled a major cash flow crises through 2016 till 2021 due to National economic factors and later Covid , being in B2B & B2G businesses through prudent Financial management rotating cash more than 150 times in a year.
Achieved a 300% jump in sales of ultrasound machines by creating a new market segment
Handled Key accounts personally resulting in creating big ticket opportunities in healthcare and Telecom businesses contributing to nearly 40% of the revenues in life time services.
Slashed payroll budgets by more than 60% by replacing many expatriate position and legacy cultured employees with Nationals who were mentored and trained by me and currently hold senior positions in Industry.
Expanded scope of business partnerships from being a Philips Medical Systems, AGFA distributor to provide support to second rung equipment manufacturers like Mindray, Sonoscape, Skanray enabling many individual radiologists and radiographers to buy ultrasound and X ray machines.
Managed under my leadership the maintenance and upkeep of more than 300 medical equipment of Philips in 83 district hospitals through out Zambia with a machine uptime of more than 90% against an All Africa average of less than 30%
Introduced security solutions through a partnership with Hikvision and introduced IP based telecom solutions in Zambia from analog systems through partnership with NEC.
As Director of Twiga Chemicals Zambia, performed as a leader in agro chemicals supplying several commercial farmers product ranges of Syngenta as their distributor for Zambia.
Handled real estate portfolio of more than 43 properties in Zambia including rentals of the real estate to commercial and residential clients.
Implemented Kaizen concepts and Co founded the Kaizen Club of Zambia as its Founding Chairman supporting JICA and Ministry of Industry
Reporting to : Chairman , AJ Group
Direct Reports :
Head of Office Automation Businesses
Head of ICT Businesses
Head of IT Businesses
Head of Agrochemicals Business
Group Coordinator ( handling real estate matters)
Finance Director / Finance Controller
Head of Stores
Indirect Reports : 80 personnel
Nature of work : Regular

Head of Operations, Safintra Zambia Limited

Zambia Sep 2010 – Jun 2012

Headed the Zambian operations of the Safal Group, a leading company in steel industry manufacturing world class roofing sheets.

Safintra Zambia performed the highest in terms of top line and bottom line during my tenure.
Augmented the brand of " Safintra" through aggressive marketing and maintained its brand identity as a premium brand in Zambia. Managed a monthly marketing budget of $60,000 focused majorly on ATL marketing. BTL marketing included participation of the famous Annual Agri show event in Zambia.
Introduced Kaizen in Safintra Zambia in collaboration with Kaizen Institute, India
Managed personally all Key accounts that provided for more than 40% of the businesses and was able to maintain healthy margins through relationship management
Managed successfully through prudent leadership a transition of the former CEO who opened a competing company next door. It was a critical moment for Safintra Zambia with losing key staff but my confidence and the confidence shown by the team in me, ensured Safintra Zambia achieving the highest turnover and bottomline in its existence in Zambia under my leadership.
Reporting to : Regional CEO , Southern Africa
No of Direct Reports
Head of Sales
Head of Institutional Sales
Head of Retail Sales
Finance Controller
Head of HR
Head of Supply Chain
Head of Quality ( Management representative)
Indirect Reports: 85 personnel
Nature of Work : Regular

General Manager, Technoton Limited

Nigeria Jul 2009 – Mar 2010

Brief stint with a leading HVAC company in Nigeria.

Brought the company out of an imminent bankruptcy through financial restructuring of debt and held projects through creditor advances.
Advanced nearly 20 out of 25 stalled projects from 10% progress to near closure of 90% in a span of 6 months.
provided the MD with a strategic direction for coming out of crisis which I understood was followed after my exit
Training of personnel ( mostly qualified engineers)
Reporting to : Managing Director ( Shareholder)
No of Direct Reports
Head of Sales
Head of Projects
Head of Finance
Head of HR
Head of Supply Chain
Indirect Reports: 35 personnel
Nature of Work : Regular

Vice President – Operations, SPEW

India May 2007 – Mar 2009

Handled operations of a leading high precision auto component manufacturer ( Suraj Precision Engineering Works Private Limited) supplying to Industry majors like Hero Honda, Ashok Leyland, Tata Motors, Enfield Eicher.

Took up six sigma projects and reduced defectives from levels of 30,000 per million to 500 pieces through effective redefining control limits.
Oversaw greenfield expansion project one at Chennai, Tamilnadu State and one in Manesar, Haryana State
Implemented Kaizen and Poke Yoke ideas successfully reducing wastage and costs
Took up business development activities with Global auto majors
Achieved and sustained TS16949 standards and ISO 9001 maintaining high quality.
Achieved a very highly successful "JIT" (Just in Time) Kanban operations with Hero Honda maintaining only two days stock at our depot near Hero Honda factory and supplying daily 33,333 bearing pieces by train from Chennai to New Delhi covering some 2300 kilometers meaning the operations were very highly synchronized
Handled working capital through a critical phase when the management shifted its bankers, closing its overdraft in one bank while the approval in the take over bank delayed by more than 8 months resulting in severe working capital crunch. I was able to successfully manage through invoice discounting with customers and additional creditor days
Handled manpower of around 500 in a 24x7x365 operations.
Reporting to : Managing Director ( Shareholder)
No of Direct Reports
Head of Production - Bearings
Head of Production - Other products
Head of Quality
Head of Supply Chain
Finance Controller ( parallel reporting)
Head of HR
Indirect Reports: 400 personnel
Nature of Work : 24x7 x365 days

Managing Director Gayshri Automobiles (Own)

India Oct 2004 – Apr 2007

Ventured into own as an entrepreneur. Venture was unsuccessful but taught a humble lesson that I was more successful as No.2 in an organization than No.1

When I started the dealership in 2004, Indian Government came out with a ban on Two stroke motorcycles. Yamaha Motorcycles , My principal was forced to stop production of the famous RX100 model , a two stroke motorcyle. So it took almost a decade for Yamaha to spruce up their brand image , but my business took a severe beating
Became an expert in designing finance schemes, mostly structures installment plans for customers in collaboration with major Financial institutions.
Carried out BTL marketing conducting road shows and fairs
Focused more on service revenues as it covered all existing RX100 motorcycles and other models of Yamaha in circulation that enabled sustenance for 3 years.
No of Direct Reports
Head of Sales
Head of Service
Finance Manager
Indirect Reports: 15 personnel
Nature of Work : Regular

Chief Manager JCB India

India Dec 1997 – Oct 2004

Handled one of the top performing regions and Channels selling Earth moving and Construction equipment.

Brought in professional practices with the Dealership channel I was handling to go from selling around 80 machines in a year before I joined to around 250 machines in 2 years time.
Introduced several customer delight concepts like a goodwill visit every quarter free of cost to the customer
Above efforts increased parts sales from $300,000 in 1997 to $1.5 mn in 2000 with a 300% increase in machine sales making my territory awarded the World's best JCB Dealer for the year 2000.
Virtually remembered the machine numbers and customers of the 600+ machine park as I traveled 22 days in a month meeting customers and machines.
Conducted several Road shows and marketing events
Systematically increased dealer network to ensure one outlet every 30 kms
Well recognized by JCB management.
Reporting to :DGM South
No of Direct Reports
Dealer Principal
Indirect Reports: 100 personnel
Nature of Work : Regular

Engineer, Larsen & Toubro Ltd ECC Group

India Sep 1996 – Dec 1997

Technical expertise development of Construction equipment

Junior Engineer AFCONS Infrastructure

India Aug 1992 – Aug 1996

Technical expertise development of construction equipment, was the first in class to be campus recruited.

Developed hands on experience in maintenance and repairs of construction and earth moving equipment
An expert in the areas of Major overhauls of equipment like Dozers, Excavators, Front end loaders, Excavator loaders, Graders , Vibratory Compactors, Generators ( upto 2MW) and more
An expert in the areas of major overhauls on Engines, Transmissions and Hydraulics

Reporting to : Plant Manager / Project Manager

Direct Reports :

Foreman

Chief Mechanics

Indirect reports : 40 personnel

Nature of work : 7am to 21 hrs Daily