Chairman of The Sanmar Group N Sankar died on Sunday following a brief illness, family sources said. He was 77. He is survived by wife, a son and daughter. Son Vijay Sankar is the deputy chairman while N Kumar, brother of Sankar, is the vice-chairman.
Sankar had held various responsibilities in industry-organisations. He had been ASSOCHAM president, chairman of Indo-US Joint Business Council, and of Madras Chamber of Commerce and Industry and of the Madras Management Association, a press release said.
He had served also as Honorary Consul General of Denmark in South India from 1989 to 2017. He had studied chemical engineering in AC Tech College of Technology and Masters in the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago.
He had been known as a people-centric leader and spent quality time with people to train them, the release said.
Sankar had joined Chemplast on May 4, 1967 as a trainee when his late father KS Narayanan had been promoter and director. He was 26 when he began his entrepreneurial career by acquiring a major stake in industrial chemicals and monomers, a carbide manufacturing company.
Besides his stint at the company, Sankar had also been a patron of sports, cricket and tennis in particular.
The Sanmar family runs two cricket clubs -- Jolly Rovers and the Alwarpet Cricket Club. A tennis champion at the university-level, Sankar had promoted the game by sponsoring it for the last 40 years.
He had been president of Tamil Nadu Cricket and Tennis Associations, and also of Madras Cricket Club.
Sankar had supported healthcare institutions such as Cancer Institute, Sankara Nethralaya, Child's Trust Hospital, and Voluntary Health Services.
He had been involved in educational and charitable organisations like Sri Sankara Schools, Chennai and Willingdon Corporate Foundation. He had been on the board of the Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode.
TVS Group chairman emeritus Venu Srinivasan said Sankar was early to adopt modern management practices and focused on building competence in his companies.
"Sankar was one of the pioneering industrialists of South India. I have known him for over many decades and watched him lead the Sanmar Group with foresight,” Srinivasan said.
"Sankar pushed international growth and investment to make Sanmar a leading player globally,” he added. The Sanmar Group has presence in India, United States of America, Mexico, and Egypt.