Coffee Day Enterprises on Monday appointed Malavika Hegde, the wife of late entrepreneur VG Siddhartha Hegde as Chief Executive Officer with effect from December 7. Currently, Hegde is a Director of the company that her husband founded. VG Siddhartha Hegde died by suicide last year in July.
Here are five things to know about Malavika Hegde:
1. Hegde was a non-executive director of the company before being appointed CEO. She joined the board in July this year after Siddhartha's death. She was married to the late entrepreneur for 32 years and has two sons with him.
2. 51-year-old Malavika Hegde is the younger daughter of SM Krishna, former Central Minister of External Affairs and former Karnataka Chief Minister.
3. In a letter to the company's 25,000 employees on July 24, Hegde wrote that she was committed to the future of the company and assured that the Coffee Day story was “worth preserving”. Her letter came hours after a probe revealed that a private entity owned by late founder Siddhartha owed Rs 2,693 crore to the listed entity, Coffee Day Enterprises Limited (CDEL). "We will work to reduce the debt to a manageable level by selling a few more investments as I am committed to the company's future," she wrote, Times of India reported.
4. Hegde, who has a bachelor's degree in Engineering from the University of Bengaluru, will now be in charge for at least five years. She will operate from Bengaluru headquarter. The company's board on Monday also approved the appointment of CH Vasudhara Devi, Giri Devanur and Mohan Raghavendra Kondi as independent directors.
5. After Siddhartha's death by suicide, Hegde managed to reduce his debt even during the lockdown. She had earlier said that the challenges increased but "somewhere along the way in the last 12 months, my mission has been to uphold the proud legacy of Siddhartha. He has left me a job to do, to settle every lender to the best of my ability, to grow the business and to enthuse and foster our employees.”
Also Read: A Story Of Strength: Why Coffee And Sunalini Menon Know Each Other Well
Feature Image Credit: AFP
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