The chairman of the chemicals-to-shipping Sanmar Group passed away on Sunday
N. Sankar, 76, chairman of the home-grown chemicals-to-shipping conglomerate Sanmar Group, passed away at his residence here on Sunday after a brief illness. He is survived by his wife Chandra, son Vijay Sankar, who is the Deputy Chairman of the $1-billion group, and a daughter Madhurika, who is a venture investor and writer.
The elder of industrialist K.S. Narayanan’s two sons, Sankar obtained a B.Sc.Tech in Chemical Engineering from the AC College of Technology and a master’s degree from the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago.
A third-generation entrepreneur, Sankar started his career as a 21-year-old trainee at the group’s flagship chemicals company, Chemplast, in 1967, when his father was overseeing the business. At 26, he made his first entrepreneurial move by helming the acquisition of a major stake in Industrial Chemicals and Monomers, a carbide manufacturing company.
His stewardship of Chemplast, and the Sanmar Group as a whole, saw the group widen and enlarge its industrial and business footprint significantly. A pioneer in PVC manufacture, Sankar came up with some of the original choices for highly integrated manufacturing processes at various facilities of Chemplast.
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