Naresh Goyal

Born July 29, 1950 (age 59) Patiala, Punjab, India

Residence Mumbai

Nationality Indian

Occupation Chairman of Jet Airways

Net worth ▲ US$2.2 billion


Naresh Goyal (born December 23, 1950) is an Indian businessman and founder Chairman of Jet Airways. He started operating Jet Airways in 1993. Following the 2005 IPO of Jet Airways, Forbes magazine declared him the 16th richest person in India with a net worth of $1.9 billion.
He took over Air Sahara giving his company 32% of the Indian travel market.
He has over 25 years of experience in the civil aviation sector. Under his leadership, Jet Airways has emerged as one of India's most preferred airlines.Following the bad times in the airline industry in the second half of 2008, Naresh Goyal joined hands with his prominent rival Vijay Mallya's Kingfisher Airlines in October 2008, entering into an agreement that would rationalize the operation of routes, sharing of codes, prices and availability, fuel management and ground handling, thus making Jet Airways-Kingfisher not only the largest market player, but also enabling both the airlines that would otherwise head for a collapse to economize and save

Early life
He was born in Patiala in Punjab in the house of a jewellery dealer. When he was 11 his family went through an economic crisis and his house was auctioned. He lived with his mother's uncle.
He completed his graduation in Commerce from Vikram College, Patiala.

Education
After graduating in commerce in 1967, Naresh Goyal joined the travel business with the general sales agents for Lebanese International Airlines. From 1967 to 1974, he took extensive training in all facets of the travel business through his association with several foreign airlines.

Jet Airways
In May 1974, Goyal founded Jet Airways (Private) Limited with the objective of providing sales and marketing representation to foreign airlines in India.
Mr. Goyal served on the Board of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) from 2004-2006.

Achievement: Founder Chairman of Jet Airways; Recipient of the first BM Munjal Award for Excellence in Learning & Development in the Private Sector category in 2006. Naresh Goyal is the founder Chairman of Jet Airways, India's largest domestic airline. Jet Airways presently operates over 320 flights daily to 48 destinations, of which five are international. Naresh Goel also figures in Forbes list of Indian billionaires. Naresh Goyal completed his graduation in Commerce in 1967 and joined the travel business with the GSA for Lebanese International Airlines. From 1967 to 1974 he learnt the intricacies of the travel business through his association with several foreign airlines. In May 1974, Naresh Goyal founded Jetair (Private) Limited to look after Sales and Marketing operations of foreign airlines in India. Naresh Goyal was involved in developing studies of traffic patterns, route structures, and operational economics and flight scheduling. His rich and varied experience made him an authority in the world of aviation and travel. In 1991, when the Indian economy was being opened up, Naresh Goyal took advantage of Open Skies Policy of the Government of India and set up Jet Airways for the operation of scheduled air services on domestic sectors in India. Jet Airways started commercial operations on May 05, 1993. Today, Jet Airways has evolved into India's largest private domestic airline. Jet Airways has been voted India's "Best Domestic Airline" by several organisations of world-class repute. In 2005, Jet Airways came up with an IPO and it was a huge success. Jet Airways was recently in controversy over its merger deal with Air Sahara. The merger was called off and the too airlines are currently considering arbitration.Along with Jet's meteoric rise, Naresh Goyal too rose in the entrepreneurial arena. He has won several honors and accolades. These include Entrepreneur of the Year Award for Services' from Ernst & Young in 2000, 'Distinguished Alumni Award-2000 for meritorious and distinguished performance as an Entrepreneur', Outstanding Asian-Indian' award for leadership and contribution to the global community given by the Indian American Centre for Political Awareness, 'Aerospace Laurels' for outstanding contribution in the field of Commercial Air Transport twice, in April 2000 and February 2004. Naresh Goyal also received the first BM Munjal Award for Excellence in Learning & Development in the Private Sector category in 2006.

Naresh Goyal's success story

Naresh Goyal had to walk for a few miles everyday to school as his parents could not afford a bicycle for him, and started his career as a cashier at his maternal uncle's company at a starting salary of Rs 300 a month.
Today, the net worth of the Jet Airways promoter is over Rs 81 billion (Rs 8100 crore), which makes him the sixth richest Indian as per the Business Standard Billionaire Club.
Goyal, however, hasn't forgotten his humble past. A reason why he remains modest and avoids the limelight. For e.g. minutes after announcing his decision to buy Air Sahara for Rs 2,225 crore (Rs 22.25 billion) - a deal, which gives him control over almost half of India's domestic aviation airspace - Goel refuses to give it much importance and said, "It's no big deal. I am neither happy nor excited. Such acquisitions have been the way of life in the west."
The modesty has been interpreted in many ways. While his associates say it shows that the man has his feet firmly on the ground, others say it's his way of avoiding controversies.
Which is understandable, as Goyal has had his share of questions raised about the origin of funds. More recently, the US government has been dragging its feet on giving Jet permission to fly to that country because of what it called the airline owner's questionable links.
For the moment, however, the 56-year-old Goyal is on Cloud 9, and says he is "open to all new trends and will grab the opportunities coming his way."
He has been doing precisely that ever since he got into the civil aviation industry 36 years back. He also has clear ideas about which way to go. For example, he thinks low cost airlines are just a myth in India.
There is nothing to call low cost carriers in India because there is no alternate second airport such as in Europe or the US. All airlines are paying for the same fuel, navigation, landing charges, which add up to 80 per cent of the total cost. There is hardly anything you can do with the balance 20 per cent.
Goyal holds a Bachelors of Commerce degree and after completing his education in 1967, joined the travel business as a general sales agent for Lebanese International Airlines.
Subsequently, he was appointed the public relation manager of Iraqi Airways in 1969 and from 1971 to 1974 was the regional manager for ALIA, Royal Jordanian Airlines.
During this period, he also worked with the Indian offices of Middle Eastern Airline, where he gained experience in various areas including ticketing, reservations and sales.
He was, thereafter, appointed regional manager of Phillipine Airlines where he handled the commercial operations of the airline in India.
He started on his own in 1974 by floating Jetair Private Ltd (then known as Jetair Transportation Private Ltd) to provide sales and marketing representation to foreign airlines in India. Shortly thereafter in 1975, he was appointed regional manager of Phillipine Airline in India.