Mukesh Ambani’s wife Nita Ambani has joined Reliance Industries Limited’s (RIL) board of directors. Nita Ambani currently serves as the Chairperson of RIL’s not for profit arm, Reliance Foundation and is also the Chairperson of Dhirubhai Ambani International School, one of Mumbai’s best schools. Mrs. Ambani’s appointment means that she will be first woman on the board of India’s largest Private Sector Enterprise. This comes at a perfect time as a new law has been passed requiring listed companies to have at least one woman in the boardroom to boost gender diversity. RIL, in a statement said, “Shareholders of RIL approved the appointment of Nita M Ambani, Chairperson of Reliance Foundation, as Director on the Board of RIL in the AGM held today.”
Nita Ambani takes the place of Ramniklal Ambani who has retired at the age of 90. Ramniklal Ambani is the elder brother of Reliance Industries’ Founder Chairman, Dhirubhai Ambani. The RIL Board is chaired by Mukesh Ambani, Dhrirubhai’s eldest son. In addition to the Ambani family, the board also comprises of Mukesh’scousins, Nikhil R Meswani and Hital R Meswani. The two key members of the board not to hold any blood relations with the Ambani’s are PK Kapil and PMS Prasad, who was the man in charge of RIL’s ambitious KG-D6 project and has recently taken over as an important executive in Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL).
Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of the Board was quoted as saying, “Nita has been engaged in several initiatives that have strengthened Reliance, right from building the world-class township and the ecological development at Jamnagar, next-generation office campuses, designing customer touch points of Reliance Retail, healthcare initiatives, successfully setting up and running institutions such as Dhirubhai Ambani International School and Mumbai Indians to, most importantly, managing Reliance Foundation,” on the appointment.Welcoming her, he said Nita, “as an accomplished individual”, will add significant value to RIL.
Nita Ambani, gracious as always, said she took the position with a sense of humility and responsibility. Mukesh Ambani’s wife has been the face of many key CSR initiatives taken by RIL in the last few years and is no strangers to key RIL personnel. “RIL has always aimed to better millions of lives and my mission will be to bring speed, scale and social contract to RIL’s larger mission. I accept this responsibility as a tribute to millions of RIL stakeholders, as well as to my tireless colleagues at Reliance Foundation,” she said.