RIL Chairman and Managing Director, Mukesh D. Ambani, is a chemical engineer from the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai (erstwhile the University Department of Chemical Technology, University of Mumbai).

He pursued an MBA from Stanford University in the USA. He has been on the Board of Reliance since 1977. He initiated Reliance’s backward integration journey – from textiles to polyester fibres and further on to petrochemicals and petroleum refining, then going upstream into oil and gas exploration and production. He has created multiple world-class manufacturing facilities involving diverse technologies that have augmented Reliance’s petrochemicals manufacturing capacities from less than a million tonnes to about 21 million tonnes per year.

In the late nineties, Mukesh Ambani spearheaded the creation of the world’s largest grassroots petroleum refinery at Jamnagar in Gujarat, India, with a capacity of 660,000 barrels per day (33 million tonnes a year), and integrated it with petrochemicals, power generation, port, and related infrastructure. Further, he steered the setting up of another 580,000-barrels-per-day refinery next to the first one in Jamnagar.

With an aggregate refining capacity of 1.4 million barrels of oil per day at a single location, Jamnagar has become the refining hub of the world and has placed India firmly on the global energy map.

Mukesh Ambani also led the development and implementation of a pan-India organized retail network for Reliance, spanning multiple formats and supply-chain infrastructure. Today, Reliance Retail is the largest organised retail player in India. He set global records in customer acquisition for Jio, Reliance’s digital services business. He led and established one of the world’s most expansive 4G broadband wireless networks, offering end-to-end solutions that address the entire value chain across various digital services in key domains of national interest, such as education, healthcare, security, financial services, government-citizen interfaces, and entertainment.

Mukesh Ambani is a member of The Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum. He is an elected Foreign Member of the prestigious United States National Academy of Engineering. He is a member of the Global Advisory Council of Bank of America. He is also a member of the International Advisory Council of The Brookings Institution. He also a member of the Indo-US CEOs Forum, Chair of The British Asian Trust's India Advisory Council, McKinsey & Company International Advisory Council, Stanford Global Advisory Council, Business Council and London School of Economics' India Advisory Group. He also serves as the Chairman of the Board of Governors for Pandit Deendayal Energy University.