Tata BP Solar India Ltd. today announced the retirement of its Chairman Syamal Gupta, who steps down after two decades of leadership at the company. Reyad Fezzani, CEO of BP Solar, has been appointed Chairman of Tata BP Solar at a Board meeting held in Mumbai yesterday.
Syamal leaves behind a rich legacy of accomplishments in the Solar industry. As a visionary and industry stalwart, he had the foresight to bring together two global giants - BP and the Tata Group, to forge a joint venture way back in 1989, when renewable or solar energy was almost unheard of in India.
Reyad Fezzani is the Chief Executive Officer, BP Solar and runs the largest and most established renewable energy business in BP’s Global Alternative Energy portfolio.
Tata BP Solar, a joint venture between BP Solar (51%) and Tata Power Company (49%), is a showcase of Indo-British collaboration. It is a pioneer and market leader in the Indian solar energy market, manufacturing photovoltaic (PV) cells and modules and solar water heaters at its plants in Bangalore. The company caters to a wide range of domestic and commercial applications including heating and lighting of homes and streets, providing reliable energy for businesses, grid-connect solar PV plants for power generation, road safety solutions, solar power for communication devices used by the military, as well as pumping water for field irrigation. Revenues for Tata BP Solar have exceeded Rs 1000 crores in the last financial year.
Syamal Gupta has been with the Tata Group since 1955. He started his career with Tata Steel at Jamshedpur after graduating in Mechanical Engineering from Jadavpur University, Kolkata. He has been Chairman of several Tata companies including Tata BP Solar, Tata International, Tata Elxsi, Tata Advanced Materials, and TCE Consulting Engineers, besides being on the board of several overseas companies including Tata Africa Holding (SA) (Pty) Ltd, South Africa, Tata South East Asia Ltd Hong Kong, Tata (UAE) FZE, Dubai, Tata Incorporated USA.
Syamal Gupta is a Fellow of the Imperial College of Science, Technology & Medicine, London, Fellow of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers (London) and a Foreign Member of the Royal Academy of Engineering, UK. He has also completed the Advanced Management Program at the Harvard Business School.
Reyad Fezzani is the Chief Executive Officer, BP Solar. He runs the largest and most established renewable energy business in BP’s Alternative Energy portfolio. Prior to this, Reyad was the CEO, BP Wind & Solar, and before that he led BP’s Global Chemicals business Aromatics & Acetyls (A&A). Since joining BP in 1989, Reyad has held a number of senior operational and commercial roles across the BP Group. These include Head of the Executive Office of the Group Chief Executive (Lord Browne of Madingly) at the time when BP launched its Alternative and Renewables Energy business; Vice President, Strategy & Planning, Refining & Marketing; Senior Vice-President, USA Commercial Marketing for Refining and Marketing; Vice-President, Supply & Logistics; Vice-President of Government & Public Affairs in Exploration and Production (E&P); Project Leader, Mergers & Acquisitions for E&P in Europe and Finance Executive, Corporate Finance.
Reyad holds a Masters Degree in Chemical Engineering and Chemical Technology from Imperial College, London. He is a Chartered Engineer, and a Fellow of the Institute of Chemical Engineers, the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining and also the Energy Institute. Reyad has worked for BP in China, Europe, North Africa and the US.
Tata Power Tata Power is India's largest private sector power utility with an installed generation capacity of over 2700 MW and a presence in all the segments of the power sector viz Generation (thermal, hydro, solar and wind), Transmission, Distribution and Trading. The Company has successful public-private partnerships in Generation, Transmission and Distribution - "North Delhi Power Limited" with Delhi Vidyut Board for distribution in North Delhi, 'Powerlinks Transmission Ltd.' with Power Grid Corporation of India Ltd. for evacuation of Power from Tala hydro plant in Bhutan to Delhi and 'Maithon Power Ltd.' with Damodar Valley Corporation for a 1050 MW Mega Power Project at Jharkhand. It has acquired 30% stake in Coal Companies at Indonesia and is developing the first 4000 MW Ultra Mega Power Project at Mundra (Gujarat) based on super-critical technology. With its track record of technology leadership, customer care and redefining contours of the Indian power sector, Tata Power is poised for a five-fold growth and committed to 'lighting up lives' for generations to come.
BP Solar, part of BP Alternative Energy, is a global company with about 2000 employees. BP Solar designs, manufactures and markets products which use the sun's energy to generate electricity for use in the residential, commercial and industrial sectors. With over 35 years of experience and installations in most countries, BP Solar is one of the world's leading solar companies. BP Solar invests millions annually in photovoltaic research and development.
BP Alternative Energy, launched in November 2005, combines all of BP’s interests in low and zero-carbon energy including: biofuels, hydrogen power with carbon capture and storage, solar and wind. Alternative Energy has invested $2.9bn in alternative energy technologies since its launch in 2005.
