Soma Mondal assumed charge as chairperson of Steel Authority of India Limited (Sail) on Jan 1. The company sales rose by 47pc in December from the prior year despite challenging market conditions. She joined Sail in 2017 as the Director (Commercial) after a illustrious career in Indian leading aluminium producer Nalco were she held the same position.
Mondal is the first woman chairperson of Sail. Also running for the position was Sail’s Director (Production) Anirban Dasgupta, as reported by Davis Index.
Improving Sail’s top-line and bottom-line is her immediate focus, stated Mondal in a company release, and stressed the company is chalking out strategies to strengthen its position. Mondal has launched new marketing strategies and improved the product mix at Sail since 2017 with the company achieving its highest sales volume in three fiscals (FY2017-18 to FY2019-20). The sales momentum has continued in FY2020-21 despite the COVID-19 pandemic. She also launched Sail brands like NEX (Structural) and SAIL SeQR (TMT bars).
Mondal is a electrical engineering graduate from the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela. She started her career as a graduate trainee at Nalco. She is also a member of the Confederation of Indian Industry’s National Committee on Steel and the Chairperson of the CII’s sub-committee ‘Safeguard for Tariff and Non-Tariff Barrier’.