Vijay Mallya

Background

Dr Vijay Mallya is an Indian businessman and Rajya Sabha MP. The chairman of the United Breweries Group and Kingfisher Airlines, Mr Mallya holds diverse interests and is famous for his flamboyant and flashy lifestyle. He is the son of notable industrialist Vittal Mallya and after completing his schooling and college in Kolkata, Mallya went on to receive an honorary Doctorate in Business Administration from California.


The UB Group

Dr Mallya began his career by training with some of the best global corporations in United States and England. Later, in the early 80s, he returned to India to assume major responsibilities with the UB Group, where his father, Mr Vittal Mallya, was the serving as the Chairman. In 1983, he became the chairman of the UB Group.

Dr Mallya immediately directed the company's focus towards defining a corporate framework that would involve greater performance accountability, inducting professional management and segregating the chaotic empire into individual operating divisions.

Judging the situation during the onset of the liberalization policies in 1990, Dr Mallya directed his company to sacrifice interests in business that were dependent upon fiscal tariff protection and to secure strongholds over globally competitive businesses that were concurrent with the core competence of the group.

Under his dynamic leadership, the group has grown into a multi national conglomerate of over 60 companies with an annual turnover that continues to increase many fold and diverse interests ranging from spirits (beverages), engineering, chemicals, IT, agriculture, and leisure. It is the third largest spirit marketer in the world with sales reaching 60 million cases.


Kingfisher Airlines

Dr Mallya established Kingfisher Airlines in 2005. He has taken care to maintain standards that the UB Group always abides by, and the Airline, bestowed with various accolades, enjoys the status of being one of India's finest experiences in the Indian sky. It is the first Indian airline to operate with a brand new fleet of aircrafts and the first one to order an Airbus 380.

Operating on a strategy to expand the market, Dr Mallya's Kingfisher picked up a 26% controlling stake in the Air Deccan. With this merger, the airline now offers services in all segments of air travel, low fares as well as premium fare.


Epic Aircraft

Eying a tremendous scope in the Indian market for small business jets, Dr Mallya has acquired half the equity of a US based jet manufacturer, Epic Aircraft, for 120 million dollars that he paid for in personal capacity. He further plans to invest in resorts in Kerala and the Lakshadweep islands and the small jets would be ideal for ferrying customers to and from these islands.


Other interests

Dr Mallya is also the owner of an F1 team, Force India and has shown interest in promoting an Indian Grand Prix, a Formula 1 race in India, possibly in Greater Noida, and an F1 street race in New Delhi.

The United Breweries sponsor two football clubs in Kolkata and The Royal Challengers Bangalore IPL cricket team.
Working on his belief in charity, Mallya has been actively supporting various charities in several countries. Some of his notable achievements towards this objective have been establishing The Mallya Hospital, The Mallya-Aditi School and t