IndiGo appoints Vikram Mehta as Chairman of Board

IndiGo airline on Wednesday appointed Vikram Singh Mehta as the Chairman of the Board. Mehta will be succeeding Dr Venkataramani Sumantran, who stepped down from the post after the completion of his five-year term as a board member. According to the press filing by IndiGo, Mehta, a former Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officer, served the country for two years in 1978, and later started his journey in the corporate sector.

Mehta is the Chairman of the public policy think tank “Centre for Social and Economic Progress”, former executive chairman of Brookings India, and senior fellow, of Brookings Institution. He was the chairman of the Shell Group of Companies in India and the Chief Executive Officer of Shell Markets and Shell Chemicals, Egypt. Mehta has been a Member of the Board of InterGlobe Aviation Limited (IndiGo) since May 2022. He also served on the boards of Colgate Palmolive (India) Limited, Mahindra & Mahindra Limited, and Larsen and Toubro Limited previously.

A mathematics graduate from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University, Mehta holds two master’s degrees – one from Oxford University in Politics and Economics, and the other in Energy Economics from Tufts University.

Mehta's appointment has come after the airline's co-founder Rakesh Gangwal sold 22.10 lakh equity shares of IndiGo through the open market this week. Gangwal and his family sold 5.7% stake in the airline for about Rs 11,385 crore through block deal, as per the media reports. His holding has declined to 1.82 crore shares of 4.73%.

Gangwal gradually trimmed his holding in the airline after he stepped down from IndiGo's board in 2022. The entrepreneur and his family have pared their stake from 36.6% to 13.5% as of the latest sale.