Ex-chairman of HUL and Business Standard T Thomas passes away
T Thomas, former chairman of Hindustan Lever (now Hindustan Unilever) and Business Standard, died on Sunday at Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai. He was 90. Ailing for a while, Thomas is survived by his wife and two children, Sunil and Anna.
T Thomas, former chairman of Hindustan Lever (now Hindustan Unilever) and BusinessStandard, died on Sunday at Breach Candy Hospital in this city. He was 90.
Ailing for a while, Thomas is survived by his wife and two children, Sunil and Anna.
Sanjiv Mehta, managing director and chief executive of Hindustan Unilever, said of him: “A remarkable leader and an institution builder. I personally looked up to him. He was a greatexampleofapurpose-drivenand values-led leader. His legacy will always live on.”
Thomas' death brings to an end a chapter in India Inc's history when chairmen, especially of multinational companies, were entrepreneurs in their own right. Thomas, the HUL chairman from 1973 to 1980, will be best remembered for contributing to the withdrawal of the price control on soaps in the 1970s.
An industrial engineer by training, hedidthisbyintroducingamass-market brand, Saral. At the time, India, among the world’s largest importers ofcrudeoil, wasreelingunderglobaloil price shocks. To tackle the resulting inflation, the Indira Gandhi government had imposed price controls on manufactured products, including soaps and vanaspati, in 1973. Thomas' response with a mass-market brand ensured HUL cut its losses incurred in 1974 (first such in the company's history), bringingitbackonagrowthpath.
In subsequent years, Thomas steered the company through a tough phase under the Janata Party government (1977-1979), when multinational companies were leaving the country due to a cap on foreign equity participation. Coca-Cola, IBM, Mobil and Kodak opted to leave during this period. Unilever stayed back, taking its shareholding to 51 per cent in 1978.
Thomas also spearheaded the launch of the Jammu detergents factory and Haldia STP (sodium tri-polyphosphate) plant during his tenure.
He was also instrumental in recasting the company’s management trainee programme, whereby trainees were made to live and work in rural areas for all-round development, HUL said.
By the time Thomas retired in 1989, he had served as a director on the board of the global company in London for 10 years. He was a visiting scholar at Sloan School, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, from 1989 to 1990, going on to set up Indus Venture Fund in 1992, this country’s first venture capital fund.
Thomas was also non-executive chairman of a number of companies, including Glaxo and Lafarge. And, wrote extensively, including a column in Business Standard.
Thomas was also involved in philanthropic work, setting up Ashadaan at Byculla in Mumbai, run by Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity, while he was HUL chairman. The organisation serves differently abled, sick and destitute people. He also led the Anglo Scottish Education Society, which runs the Cathedral School in Mumbai, for almost four decades.