Govt ropes in Kearney top gun Vikas Kaushal as HPCL chief

NEW DELHI: The government on Friday appointed Vikas Kaushal, former India head of management consultancy firm Kearney (formerly known as A. T. Kearny), as chairman of state-run Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd, after accepting the oil ministry’s suggestions for relaxations in eligibility criteria.

Kaushal becomes the first person from the private sector to be appointed as the head of a state-run oil company, indicating the government’s bid to bring in outside talent through lateral entry at a time when the energy world is witnessing a paradigm shift.

A chemical engineering graduate from Panjab University and MBA from Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad, Kaushal will succeed Push Kumar Joshi, who superannuated on August 31 last year. Kaushal has three decades of advising corporates on management.

Kaushal has exposure to the working of global and domestic oil industry as Kearney’s lead for energy and process industries at Kearn. He is also the only Indian to have been elected to Kearney’s global board for two terms, the maximum limit.

PESB, the government headhunter, had in June last year rejected all the eight candidates interviewed for the HPCL top post, leaving it to the government to decide on a suitable course of action to fill the vacancy.

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