New Delhi– The leadership baton of Escorts Ltd has been passed on to Nikhil Nanda to succeed his father and well-known industrialist Rajan Nanda.

On Tuesday, the company announced that the Board of Directors of the engineering conglomerate appointed Nikhil Nanda as the Chairman and Managing Director of the Escorts Group.

Rajan Nanda died on Sunday, after a brief illness, at the age of 76. He had joined Escorts in 1965 when he was 23, and in 1994, he took over as the Chairman of Escorts Group, when his father and the founder Chairman, H.P. Nanda, stepped down after a long 50-year innings.

It was under Rajan’s stewardship that new technologies were introduced in various Escorts’ businesses to spearhead the growth to the next level.

Currently, the group is moving ahead in the high growth areas of agri-machinery, construction equipment and railway equipment.

Nanda was also instrumental in setting up the state-of-the-art R&D facility for the company at Faridabad.

Known as a committed philanthropist, he was also an active member of several apex trade and industry bodies. As a member of the CII National Council, he had served as Chairman of its Agriculture Committee.

Nikhil is a third-generation entrepreneur. He was appointed as Managing Director of Escorts in 2013 and he has been a key member of the Board since 1997.

He is an alumnus of Wharton Business School in the US, with majors in management and marketing. (IANS)