Best Agrolife Ltd, India's leading agrochemical company, announced the appointment of Pramod N Karlekar as Managing Director of their subsidiary company Best Crop Science Pvt Ltd. (BCSPL). Karlekar is a well-known chemical technocrat and R&D expert with over 35 years of experience in the agrochemical industry.
He has a proven track record of managing strategic leadership roles and business operations for numerous multinational corporations and large Indian corporations.
“We feel fortunate to have Karlekar on board and we are sure that under his direction BCSPL will reach new heights. Karlekar’s proven leadership skills, superior management skills, strong customer focus, sharp commercial acumen, strategic business focus, and long experience of holding leading roles in the chemical industry will help the company to develop and execute winning growth strategies,” says Vimal Alawadhi, Managing Director of Best Agrolife Ltd (BAL).
A Chemical Engineer from UDCT- one of the top Indian Institute for Chemical Technology and a Management Graduate from Mumbai University, Karlekar has a diverse and enriching professional background. He has been associated at the apex level with many reputed organizations starting with Davy Powergas India - an engineering consultancy firm of global repute.
Later on, he joined the agrochemicals field with Rallis India Ltd as President Technology, thereafter worked at leadership levels including as President of the Agrochemical division of Atul Ltd, as COO of Deepak Nitrite Ltd., as Managing Director of Cheminova India Ltd from 2008 and subsequently as its President international region comprising of Asia-Pacific, Africa, Middle East.
Following the global acquisition of Cheminova by FMC corp (USA), he was appointed country head for FMC India. He worked on many important strategic areas during these assignments, such as mergers and acquisitions and global business development, among others.
He promoted Sudarshan Farm Chemicals India Private Limited in 2018 with a view to develop chemical technologies for products not being manufactured by anyone in India thus far and assumed the position of its CMD. Now, he would be taking over the responsibility as Managing Director of BCSPL, while continuing to be the Chairman of Sudarshan Farm Chemicals.
While fulfilling his responsibilities for the aforementioned commercial assignments, he has also contributed to the cause of industry as a Director on the boards of CropLife Asia and CropLife Africa-Middle East, as well as a Director on the Crop Care Federation of India, for the past two decades. It is worth noting that BCSPL recently received an A- long-term rating from CARE Ratings, India's leading credit rating agency.
