Sanmar Group's chairman N Sankar, 76, passes away after brief illness

He had held office in several public trade and industry bodies, Assocham, Indo-US Joint Business Council, Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry, among others

N Sankar, Chairman of the Chennai-headquartered $1 billion business conglomerate Sanmar Group, passed away on Sunday following a brief illness. He was 76.

Sankar was currently the Chairman of The Sanmar Group, operating in the core areas of chemicals, shipping, metals and engineering.  Sankar had held office in several public bodies representing trade and industry, including president of Assocham (1991-92), Chairman of Indo-US Joint Business Council (1998-99), Chairman of Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry  (1986-87) and President of Madras Management Association (1981-87) among others.

Sankar was on the Board of NOCIL, Mumbai, and the India Advisory Board of FLSmidth, Denmark.

Over the years Sankar was involved with the management of a number of educational and charitable organisations. He was currently a member of the board of The CHILDS Trust. Earlier he was Chairman of The Chennai Willingdon Corporate Foundation and Chennai Heritage, and a member of the Board of Governors of The Indian Institute of Management-Kozhokide. Keenly interested in sports, he held the positions of Vice President of the All India Tennis Association, and President of the Tamil Nadu Cricket and Tennis Associations.

Sankar also served as the Honorary Consul General for Denmark in South India from 1989 to 2017, and was awarded the 'Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog, First Class’ by the Danish Government in recognition of his services.

Venu Srinivasan, chairman emeritus of TVS Group said, "Sankar was one of the pioneering industrialists of South India. I have known him over many decades and watched him lead the Sanmar group with foresight. He was early to adopt modern management practices and focused on building competence in his companies. He pushed International growth and investment to make Sanmar a leading player globally.