Billionaire businessman Mukesh Ambani, who heads the country's most valued corporate group, has been ranked sixth among the world's 40 most powerful faces in the chemical industry.
In a list compiled by international chemical business information provider ICIS, Ambani has moved up four positions in this year's list, topped by German chemical major BASF Chairman and CEO Jurgen Hambrecht.
Ambani is the only Indian on the ICIS Top 40 Power Players list for 2008, where he follows Dow Chemical's Andrew Liveris (second), Saudi Arabian firm Sabic's CEO Mohamed Al-Mady (third), Kuwait's Petrochemical Industries Co's CMD Maha Mulla Hussain (fourth) and China's Sinopec Chairman Su Shulin (fifth).
According to the report in the weekly magazine ICIS Chemical Business, under Ambani's leadership, "Reliance Industries continues to dominate the Indian petrochemical scene and to push forward with diversification and globalisation plans."
In the report, ICIS stated that these people have changed the face of global chemical industry through mergers and acquisitions, policy leadership, innovation or financial performance.
Although Reliance Petroleum's new world scale refinery- cum- polypropylene (PPP) complex at Jamnagar progressed ahead of schedule, the start-up has been delayed due to the slump in the markets, it added.
