The Deveshwar legacy

He redefined ITC and Indian professional management

Yogesh Chander Deveshwar, who died in Gurugram on Saturday at the age of 72, was the epitome of a company man. Educated at the Indian Institute of Technology and Harvard Business School, he joined ITC in 1968 and was still serving the organisation, as non-executive chairman, when he passed away, although he had stepped down from being chief executive in 2017 — a job he first took on more than two decades earlier. The only time he left the company briefly was in the 1990s, when he served as chairman of Air India. He rose meteorically through the ranks at