United Breweries Ltd, the maker of India's top beer brand Kingfisher, has elevated Shekhar Ramamurthy as the new managing director of the company with effect from August 1, 2015, it said in a stock market disclosure.
Ramamurthy was serving as the joint president since 2012 and will replace Kalyan Ganguly, 64, who is retiring and may pursue other interests.
An alumnus of Harvard Business School, Ganguly has worked with UB group for around 36 years. He started his career with Reckitt & Colman India Ltd and subsequently in 1979 joined the Spirits Division of the UB Group.
At the group, he handled various assignments in sales and marketing and prior to his transfer to the Breweries Division, he was head of sales & marketing at the Spirits Division.
On the other side, Ramamurthy has been with UB group for about 26 years. Prior to taking over as joint president three years ago, he served as deputy president of sales, marketing and operations since October 2007.
Ramamurthy is an IIT Delhi alumnus and holds an MBA from IIM Calcutta.
Meanwhile, the company has appointed Frans Erik Eusman as an additional director on the board of the company. Eusman recently took over as the president of Asia Pacific Region at Heineken NV, the largest shareholder of United Breweries.
He takes over from Roland Pirmez who was earlier chief of Heineken in Asia Pacific and recently moved to become president of Africa, Middle East and Eastern Europe at Heineken.