About

When the Aditya Birla Group needed to bolster its legal operation to match its hectic M&A activity in 2009, it turned to Ashok Gupta who was at Hindustan Unilever at the time. Clearly happy at securing Gupta’s services, Aditya Birla’s executive director (HR & IT) Santrupt Misra said at the time: ‘We wanted Ashok to join us because he has expertise in M&A. He also has global experience and was handling the South Asian region for Unilever out of India’. Interacting with other business heads on various acquisitions, mergers and divestitures Gupta has so far fulfilled the company’s trust in him, having led his team through a number of large acquisitions including a stake in Star Cement for $380m, Domsjo for $363m and Columbian Chemicals for $875m. Leading a team of over 200 in-house lawyers, Gupta also works closely with other corporate functions to provide integrated business solutions, whilst keeping a close eye on the regulatory environment. In addition to handling complex acquisitions, corporate re-structurings and various arbitrations and litigations, Gupta has formed the Adita Birla’s policies and guidelines, through his legal team, on key issues such as intellectual property rights, competition law and corporate governance. A proactive exponent of the in-house role, Gupta has been quoted as saying: ‘The role of lawyers is now getting aligned to shareholder expectations; they are the conscience keepers of an organisation. Earlier, external lawyers routinely stitched together agreements but did not take a call on the deal. Now, in-house lawyers take business decisions based on the risk-benefit scenario’.