Mallika Srinivasan, 54 Chairman and CEO, TAFE (Tractors and Farm Equipment) Company Chennai, India

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Mallika Srinivasan, 54
Chairman and CEO,
TAFE (Tractors and Farm Equipment) Company
Chennai, India
Mallika Srinivasan was born on November 19, 1959 as the eldest daughter of industrialist
Sivasailam Anantharamakrishnan, in Chennai, India. She was always brilliant in academics and at
an early age, she took an interest in business studies, particularly Economics. This is the reason why
she pursued her Master’s degree and became a gold-medallist in Econometrics from the University
of Madras. She then studied abroad and graduated as a Member of the Dean’s Honor List, and the
Alpha Beta, Gamma Society, from the University of Wharton, Pennsylvania. She is today ranked as
one of the top 125 most successful Alumni of the Wharton School of Business. She is a gold
medallist in Hindi from the Hindi Prachar Sabha, and is also the recipient of the Kulapathi Gold
medal, ranking first in the country in Marketing and Advertising from the Bhavans College of Mass
Communication.
In the year 1986, Mallika Srinivasan joined the family business and was made the General Manager
of TAFE (Tractors and Farm Equipment) Company. She worked her way across the organisation
before taking over the reins of the Company. Under the expert guidance of her father and the
support of the team, she brought about a major transformation. Under her watch, the tractor
company her father started in 1960 has grown into the third biggest tractor maker in the world by
volume. TAFE manufactures over 170,000 tractors a year it went up from 4,000 in 1985 and
managed to record a revenue of US$ 1.6 billion. She converted TAFE into a hi technology-oriented
company, thereby becoming the initial choice of the farmers.
TAFE is the third largest tractor manufacturer in the world and the second largest in India in terms
of volume, and it has branches in 82 countries. In 25 years, she has established TAFE as a quality
mass manufacturer of tractors, a resilient organisation that can effectively go through any business
situation in the tractor business. With her special emphasis on product development, she has
ensured significant expansion of TAFE’s product range. The company has had a long alliance with
Massey Ferguson, which is now a part of AGCO. The company is looking forward to exporting
fully constructed tractors to AGCO. Her long-term strategic alliance with US based agriculture
equipment manufacturer AGCO (in which TAFE is a large stock owner and she is a board member)
has helped TAFE become India’s largest exporter of tractors.

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Mallika Srinivasan is known for her entrepreneurial skills and contribution to the Indian agriculture
machinery business and academia. In fact, she supports the Sankara Nethralaya, the Cancer Hospital
in Chennai, and several educational and healthcare facilities in Tirunelveli. In addition, she
promotes and supports the musical tradition of Carnatic music through the Indira Sivasailam
Endowment Fund. It is said that a successful leader is someone who not only ensures that their
organisation reaps profits but is someone who also looks into the welfare of the society. And
Mallika Srinivasan is one of them. Despite her busy schedule, she makes it a point to do something
for the society.
In 2011, Mallika Srinivasan was named the Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst and Young. In
addition, she was included in Forbes Asia’s list of the Top 50 Asian Power Businesswomen. In
January 2014, the Government of India conferred her with the prestigious ‘Padma Shri’ award for
her contribution to Trade and Industry. This shows Mallika Srinivasan’s significant contribution to
the Indian business scene. Over the years, Mallika Srinivasan accumulated a number of awards and
this speaks volumes of her leadership abilities, foresight and determination to succeed.
Presently, Mallika Srinivasan is on the Board of AGCO Corporation - USA, Tata Steel Limited and
Tata Global Beverages Limited. She is a member of the Executive Board of the Indian School of
Business, Hyderabad, the Governing Board (Rural Technology And Business Incubator) of the
Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai and the Bharathidasan Institute of Management, Trichy.
She is also serving as the president of premier industrial bodies like Tractor Manufacturers
Association and the Madras Management Association. She is the first lady to have assumed the role
of a president of the Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
REFERENCE
• Mallika Srinivasan. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mallika_Srinivasan
• People. Retrieved from http://www.tafe.com/people.php
• Mallika Srinivasan. Retrieved from http://www.iloveindia.com/indian-heroes/mallika-
srinivisan.html

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• Mallika Srinivasan MA, MBA. Retrieved from
http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/person.asp?personId=12189118&privcapId=
20724938
• Mallika Srinivasan, Indian Business Woman. (2013, May 31). Retrieved from
http://www.indianetzone.com/57/mallika_srinivasan.htm
• "Mallika Srinivasan”. Retrieved from http://www.mbarendezvous.com/motivational-
story/mallika-srinivasan/
• The Most Powerful Women of Asia-Pacific. (2014, September 18). Retrieved from
http://fortune.com/2014/09/18/most-powerful-women-asia-pacific/