Nirmalya Kumar

Dr. Nirmalya Kumar is currently a Professor of Marketing at London Business School and Co-Director of the Aditya Birla India Centre. He also serves as Lee Kong Chian Professor of Marketing at Singapore Management University and Distinguished Fellow at INSEAD Emerging Markets Institute. Previously, he was a Member of the Group Executive Council at Tata Sons, where he reported to Cyrus Mistry, the Chairman of the $100 billion Tata group, which employs 675,000 employees worldwide. Kumar has held academic positions at prestigious institutions including Columbia University, Harvard Business School, IMD (Switzerland), and Northwestern University (Kellogg School of Management). He has also taught at London Business School, focusing on customer value management strategies, brand marketing, and creating a culture of innovation.

As a consultant and speaker, Kumar has engaged with over 50 Fortune 500 companies across 60 different countries. He has served on the boards of directors for various billion-dollar companies including ACC, Ambuja Cement, Bata India, Tata Chemicals, Ultratech, and Zensar, as well as companies listed on India's stock indices. His expertise in strategy and marketing has made him a sought-after figure in the business community, particularly in areas such as competing against industry leaders, managing brand portfolios, and designing market offers. Kumar's ability to combine academic insight with practical business strategies is evident in his numerous publications, which include six articles each in the Journal of Marketing Research and the Harvard Business Review. His work "Strategies to Fight Low-Cost Rivals" was the best-selling article in the December 2006 issue of Harvard Business Review.

Kumar has authored six books such as "Marketing as Strategy", "Private Labels: Competing With and Against Store Brands", "Value Merchants", "India’s Global Powerhouses", and "India Inside". With a Google Scholar citation count exceeding 22,000, his scholarly contributions have significant impact. He has been recognized globally, being voted by Speaking.com as one of the "Top 5 Marketing Speakers Worldwide" in 2010 and ranked 6th on the list of Global Indian Thought Leaders by The Economic Times. Kumar is a three-time Thinkers50 honoree and was inducted into their Hall of Fame in 2017.

Outside of his professional endeavors, Kumar is an enthusiastic supporter of the arts and a custodian of a significant private collection that includes works by Jamini Roy and Rabindranath Tagore. He supports various museum exhibitions and publications through his Bengal School 1900-1950 art collection and has been awarded an Honorary Fellowship by the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, in recognition of his patronage and promotion of South Asian Art.