Venkat Sumantran Biography, Age, Height, Wife, Net Worth and Family

Venkat Sumantran is an Indian businessman, academic, and author. He has worked with the auto and mobility industry in the US, Europe, and India for over three decades. He is the Chairman of Celeris Technologies and a member of the board of directors for several organizations in the domains of automotive, electronics, and aviation. Sumantran is one of the inventors of the Tata Nano 1 lakh car. He was appointed as chairman of the board of InterGlobe Aviation Ltd. (IndiGo Airlines) in May 2022.

In May 2022, The Board of InterGlobe Aviation Ltd. (IndiGo Airlines) appointed Sumantran as chairman.

Later, in his role as vice-chairman of Ashok Leyland Ltd., he founded and was Chairman of Defiance Technologies Ltd, a subsidiary of Ashok Leyland that went on to help the Renault-Nissan Alliance develop the entry-level global car platform – referred to as the CMF-A architecture. In May 2020, Indigo Airlines appointed Sumantran as independent director.

He is the co-author of the book, Faster, Smarter, Greener: the Future of the Car and Urban Mobility, published by the MIT Press in 2017.

Sumantran began his professional career at the General Motors Technical Center in Michigan in 1985. He returned to India and became executive director of Tata Motors Ltd. in 2001, where he was responsible for the fledgling Passenger Car business and simultaneously oversaw the company’s Engineering Research Centre. During this period, his contributions to Frugal engineering were acclaimed in relation to his development of the Tata Nano – the car that gained global acclaim for low-cost innovation.

Sumantran received a B.Tech. degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras in 1981. He subsequently earned his master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University in 1983 where his work involved stability and control of airships. He went on to receive his Ph.D. degree in Aerospace Engineering from Virginia Tech here he worked on low-speed airfoils suitable for the emerging class of remotely piloted aircraft.