Raghavendra Rao

Recipient of the India Young Business Achiever Award for 1996-97, Raghavendra Rao is the Managing Director of Orchid Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals Limited. This is the country’s largest manufacturer and exporter of oral and sterile Cephalosporins, is also among the top five producers in this sector globally.

Graduating from IIM-Ahmedabad in 1979, Rao turned around a sick unit in a year’s time, at Pure Ice Creams (P) Limited. After a 4-year stint at Ashok Leyland, he joined Standard Organics as Vice President in 1986. He then went on to set up four projects in the Sultanate of Oman, for the Al Buraimi Group.

Rao started Orchid Chemicals and Pharmaceuticals in 1994 and is steering the organisation towards perennial growth.