People: Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HLL.BO)

Dr. Raghunath Anant Mashelkar is Non-Executive Independent Director of Hindustan Unilever Limited. He is presently also the President of Global Research Alliance, a network of publicly funded R&D institutes from Asia-Pacific, Europe and USA. He served as the Director General of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) for over eleven years. He was also the President of Indian National Science Academy and the Institution of Chemical Engineers (UK). Dr. Mashelkar is only the third Indian engineer to have been elected as the Fellow of Royal Society (FRS), London in the twentieth century. He is the first Indian to have been elected as the Foreign Fellow of Australian Technological Science and Engineering Academy. In 1998, Dr. Mashelkar won the JRD Tata Corporate Leadership Award and he was the first scientist to win it. In 2005, he became the first Asian scientist to receive the award of 'Stars of Asia' at the hands of George Bush (Sr.), the former President of USA. As the Chairman of the Standing Committee on Information Technology of World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), as a member of the International Intellectual Property Rights Commission of UK Government and as the Vice-Chairman on Commission in Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and Public Health (CIPIH) set up by World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Mashelkar brought new perspectives on the issue of IPR and the developing world's concerns. Dr. Mashelkar has won over 50 awards and medals in the field of science and technology and was honoured by the President of India with the Padma Shri (1991) and with the Padma Bhushan (2000), in recognition of his contribution to nation building. He has also won the 'Punyabhushan Award' at the hands of the legendary Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam. Dr. Mashelkar joined the Board of the Company as an Independent Director in April 4, 2008.