kartik kannan's space on the web

Interview#2 at Blogcamp 2006

I happened to meet the Yahoo Director, Mr George Zacharias,who was with Sunil Gavaskar, as part of the Yahoo Team.I have heard quite a bit about Mr George Zacharias,from my mother who sometime back was working for Sify. Mr George came across to me as an extremely affable and a patient person.I have limited my interviews to last 5-6 minutes,more so a small chit-chat.

George Zacharias had been President and Chief Operating Officer of Sify Limited since March 2000 and had quit Sify 7 months back. He has played a key part in formulating and executing the strategies that turned around the company, and in leading the management team through the Company’s rapid revenue growth (to a US$100 million run rate) over the past five years.He joined Sify from Madura Coats, Bangalore, India where he had worked for 16 years in a variety of sales, marketing and export assignments.

He was the Marketing Director, Coats Tootal Lanka, Colombo prior to becoming, in 1997, President of Madura Garments, the leading garment and retail company in India, then a division of Madura Coats.As President, Madura Garments, he held profit centre responsibility for the then US$23 million business that he grew to US$50 million annual revenues in the next two and a half years. He oversaw the launch of several national brands like Peter England, Byford, San Frisco as well as the launch of new retail formats like Trouser Town and Planet Fashion.George has a degree in Chemical Engineering from Nagpur University, 1980 and an MBA from XLRI, Jamshedpur, 1982. From campus he joined Grindwell Norton and was with them till December 1983, when he joined Madura Coats.