Raj Vardhan

Raj Vardhan is the current Director at McLeod Russel India Ltd. Prior to their current position, Raj served as the Sr. Vice President, Regional Head at Olam from September 2013 to December 2018. In this role, they were responsible for Olam's operations in Former Soviet Union (FSU) origins of Russia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan & Belarus.

As a leading exporter of grain in the Black Sea region & cotton in the CIS region, Raj managed a top-line of over USD one Billion plus. Raj led an organization which employed over 1600 people in the region, 8 business verticals & 3 regional functions. Additionally, Raj oversaw Olam's participation in dairy products, edible nuts, coffee beans, instant coffee private label & contract manufacturing, cocoa beans & cocoa value added trade flows in this region.

Raj also has substantial investment in Russia in commercial row crop & dairy farming (establishing the single largest dairy farm on the European continent). While providing oversight to existing businesses, Raj's responsibilities entailed ensuring sustainable bottom line delivery from the region, identifying & mitigating key risks, maintaining relationship with key federal ministries in Russia & assisting each of the businesses to grow beyond their present scope & scale. The main scope of Raj's role was to successfully turnaround all businesses in the region; a delta of USD 70Million was achieved in a 3 year period.

Raj Vardhan has completed an advanced management program in general management from Harvard Business School. Raj also has an executive program in strategy and leadership from Indian School of Business. Raj Vardhan has an MBA in marketing and finance from BIT Mesra Student-Industry Relations Cell. Raj has a BA (Honors) in economics from D.A. V. College, Chandigarh. Raj Vardhan has completed their 10th in economics from Loyola School, Jamshedpur. Raj has also completed executive education in agribusiness/agricultural business operations from Harvard Business School.