Ajit Gulabchand, Chairman and Managing Director of Hindustan Construction Company (HCC) Ltd., has over the past 25 years, spearheaded the transformation of the company from a construction major into a business group of global scale, developing and building responsible infrastructure through next practices.

With an engineering heritage of nearly 100 years, HCC has executed a majority of India’s landmark infrastructure projects, having constructed 25% of India’s hydel-power and over 50% of India’s nuclear power generation capacities, over 3,100 lane km of expressways and highways, more than 200 km of complex tunneling, and over 324 bridges.

The HCC Group, with a group turnover of Rs. 8,157 Cr (US$ 1.5 billion), comprises of HCC Ltd, HCC Infrastructure Co. Ltd, HCC Real Estate Ltd, Lavasa Corporation Ltd and Steiner AG in Switzerland. As Chairman – Lavasa Corporation Ltd, Mr. Gulabchand is the visionary behind the concept of free India’s planned Hill City, Lavasa, which today is seen as a blueprint for the many future cities India will need as it responds to massive rural-to-urban migration.

A regular participant at the World Economic Forum (WEF) for almost two decades, Mr. Gulabchand was the first Asian to Chair the Governor’s Steering Board of the Engineering & Construction Community at the WEF in Davos, 2011. He also served as a Co-Chair at the WEF’s India Economic Summit in 2010. He is the only Indian business leader to participate on panels at the United Nation’s Annual Summit on Climate Change, as well on the United Nation’s Global Compact Summit.

A practitioner of sustainable infrastructure development, Mr. Gulabchand has been the first Indian signatory to endorse the United Nations CEO Water Mandate which mobilizes businesses globally towards making water sustainability a corporate priority. He is an Executive Committee member of TERI’s (The Energy and Resources Institute) – Business Council for Sustainable Development. Mr. Gulabchand is also the President of the International Federation of Asian and Western Pacific Contractors’ Associations (IFAWPCA).

Disaster Relief forms a significant area of focus at HCC, under the aegis of Mr. Gulabchand’s sustainability canvas. He was the founder member and Chairman of the Geneva-based Disaster Resource Network, formed in collaboration with the World Economic Forum, the United Nations and the International Red Cross. He is also the founder member and Chairman of Disaster Resource Network India, wherein he has steered emergency response teams and rehabilitation to a number of locations struck by natural disasters in India and abroad. He is also a member of the United Nations Disaster Risk Reduction – Private Sector Partnership.