Mr. Vikas Kaushal has assumed charge as Chairman & Managing Director of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited on March 17, 2025. A seasoned global leader with over three decades of experience in Energy domain, he is a chemical engineering graduate from DCET, Panjab University and has done his MBA from Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.
Mr. Kaushal started his career at ICICI Limited where he worked in Project Finance and Advisory Services Division. Since 2000, he worked with the leading global management consulting firm A. T. Kearney and was a Partner with the firm for over 17 years. He was pivotal to the growth of firm’s business in India and till recently was playing the role of Chairman of India business. He has been twice elected to the Global Board of Directors of A. T. Kearney. During this period, he also had the opportunity to serve as the Chair of the Finance and Audit and Governance Committees of the Board of Directors.
Mr. Kaushal has deep expertise in the Energy domain, including oil and gas, power, renewables and new energies. He has advised leading international oil companies and all the leading state-owned oil and gas companies in India i.e HPCL, Indian Oil, BPCL, GAIL, etc. on multiple large scale transformation programs for a long period of time.
An expert on Energy Transition topics, he has authored several key thought pieces on oil & gas, power, chemicals, and related topics and is a regular speaker at key conferences in India, and globally. He is passionate about developing people and has successfully groomed and mentored professionals and spends part of his time coaching young talent.
Vanisha Mittal Bhatia
Ms. Vanisha Mittal Bhatia is the Chief Strategy Officer at Aperam since April 2011. She is a non-independent Director on the Board of ArcelorMittal and has been a member of the LNM Holdings Board of Directors since June 2004. In December 2004, she was appointed to the Board of Directors of Mittal Steel, where she worked in the Procurement department, leading several key initiatives, including the Total Cost of Ownership program. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the European Business School.
Rajneesh Narang
Mr. Rajneesh Narang is Director (Finance) of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (‘HPCL’), a Maharatna Oil Company. Prior to this, Mr. Rajneesh Narang was Executive Director – Corporate Finance & Chief Financial Officer of HPCL. He has also held various key portfolios including that of Executive Director – Finance (Marketing), Executive Assistant to Chairman & Managing Director – HPCL among other assignments. He is on Board of several HPCL Subsidiary/Joint Venture Companies.
A Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and a degree in Masters in Financial Management, Mr. Narang brings with him rich and varied professional exposure of more than 3 decades across various spectrum of Downstream Oil Company. He has held various key challenging assignments in HPCL in the field of Corporate Finance, Treasury, Risk Management, Margin Management, Marketing Finance, Budgeting, SBU Commercial, C&MD’s Office and Refinery Project.
Mr. Rajneesh Narang is known for his Commercial acumen, innovative ideas and people-centric leadership. In his various roles, he has focussed on investment in Human capital for building successful teams and individuals and able to perform and deliver exceptional results through positive engagement and a shared vision. He has various academic distinctions to his credit and is a key technical speaker in In-house capability building seminars and workshops.
Rajan Tandon
Mr. Rajan Tandon is based in London for last 23 years and is Vice President of Finance at Mittal Investments UK and has over 34 years of industrial experience. Prior to his current role, he was Director-Finance at Mittal Steel. He has been a leading member of the Corporate Finance Team. He has also served as Treasurer for LNM Holdings NV until its merger with Ispat International (now known as ArcelorMittal) in December 2004. With a 30-year career within the Group, he has held various positions in Finance and Accounting.
Mr. Tandon is an Honours Graduate in Commerce from St. Xavier's College, Kolkata and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. He also serves on the Board of various Group Companies including HPCL-Mittal Energy Limited, India, HPCL-Mittal Pipelines Limited, India and is also a member of the Governing Council of LNM Institute of Information Technology, Jaipur.
S. Bharathan
Mr. S. Bharathan has taken charge as Director-Refineries of HPCL on October 1, 2022. Prior to this, he was the Executive Director – Refineries Coordination of HPCL with Additional Charge of R&D.
Mr. Bharathan has wide exposure to the Refinery operations of HPCL and has worked in Operations and Technical Departments of Mumbai and Visakh Refinery for over 25 years. He has also worked in the Corporate Office of HPCL on Margin Management & Refinery Project Process for over 4 years. Further, he is also leading HPCL’s Green R&D Centre in Bengaluru for the last 3 years. Under him, HPCL Green Research & Development Centre (HPGRDC) has reached filing of about 380 patents.
Jagjeet Singh Bindra
Mr. Bindra has extensive executive experience with large international organizations in the USA, Australia and India and till recently was on the Supervisory Board of LyondellBasell, one of the largest plastics, chemicals and refining companies in the world.
He has been the President of Chevron Global Manufacturing, managing its worldwide manufacturing operations, comprising of 20 refineries across the globe. Among the many successes of his 32-year career at Chevron, Mr. Bindra led an initiative to negotiate financing, design, and for construction of a critical pipeline to move crude oil from the Tengiz field in Kazakhstan to the Black Sea. Mr. Bindra brings extensive experience in research & development, refinery engineering & operations, project management, strategic planning and international business management.
He was the chairman of the University of Washington College of Engineering Visiting Committee from 2013 to 2017 and past vice chairman of the Association of Oil Pipe Lines. His past Board of Directors affiliations also include Edison International/Southern California Edison Company, WorleyParsons, Transocean, Caltex Australia Limited, GS Caltex (South Korea), Transfield Services Limited (Australia) along with Reliance Petroleum Limited and Larson & Toubro Limited.
In 2008, Mr. Bindra received the prestigious Diamond Award from the University Of Washington College Of Engineering's in recognition of his career achievements. Mr. Bindra was named Distinguished Alumnus of the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur in 2000. Mr Bindra has served as the Distinguished Honorary Professor at Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology in the past.
An Indian by birth, Mr. Bindra received his bachelor's degree with distinction in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur in 1969 and a master's degree in chemical engineering from the University of Washington at Seattle in 1970. He earned a master's degree in business administration with honors from St. Mary's College in Moraga, California in 1979.
Dr. Manaswini Bhalla
Dr. Manaswini Bhalla, Professor in Economics at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore, specializes in information economics, with a particular focus on pricing, corporate culture, and political economy. Her research uses empirical and game-theoretic methods. Dr. Bhalla teaches Managerial Economics and Strategic Thinking: Game Theory for Managers to PGP students and conducts executive education on economics and game theory for senior managers. She is currently examining the impact of culture on economic outcomes in corporate boards, entrepreneurship, legal systems, and real estate. Her work on pricing, published in leading journals, explores firm strategies to shape consumer learning.
Prabh Das
Mr. Prabh Das has been involved with HMEL since its inception including in the formation of the joint venture. He formally joined HMEL in 2008 and has been instrumental in setting up of the Guru Gobind Singh Refinery project and its operations thereafter. He possesses vast and wide-ranging experience in administration and management, having served in the Indian Administrative Services for over 25 years. He is responsible for leading and managing HMEL and its subsidiaries as Managing Director and CEO.
Prior to joining HMEL, Mr. Das served as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas from 2003 to March 2008 where he was in charge of the Refineries Division and was instrumental in implementing the auto fuel policy, strategic storage and new initiatives in oil diplomacy. He led the transformation of the domestic refining sector which included strengthening refining capacities, improving refining operations, safety aspects and introduction of new technologies.
During his tenure in the ministry, he was on the Board of Fortune 500 companies such as Indian Oil Corporation Ltd., HPCL, Mangalore Refineries and Petrochemicals Ltd., Chennai Petroleum Corporation Ltd. and Engineers India Ltd.
Mr. Das is a B. Tech (Hons.) from IIT, Kharagpur and completed his Master of Business Administration from Southern Cross University, Australia.
