New Delhi: Kumar Mangalam Birla, leading industrialist and Chairman of the Aditya Birla Group, has been elected the new Chancellor of the Birla Institute of Technology and Sciences (BITS).

The decision was taken in a meeting of the Board of Governors of the institute held at Birla House in the capital.

He succeeds K.K. Birla who recently passed away.

Kumar Mangalam Birla holds several key positions on various regulatory and professional boards.

He has served as the chairman of Securities and Exchange Board of India's Committee on Corporate Governance, and as chairman of SEBI's committee on insider trading.

He has also been playing a stellar role on the National Council of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII); the Apex Advisory Council of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India, New Delhi and the Advisory Council for the Centre for Corporate Governance.

Holder of Honorary Doctorates conferred by various universities and winner of several coveted awards for corporate leadership, Kumar Mangalam Birla is an alumnus of the London Business School, where he is also an Honorary Fellow.

After being elected as the institute's Chancellor, Mr. Birla nominated Shobhana Bhartia, Chairperson and Editorial Director of Hindustan Times (HT) Media Ltd., as the Pro-chancellor of the institute

Mrs. Shobhana Bhartia is an alumnus of Calcutta University.

She has been Rajya Sabha member, the Chairperson of the Press Trust of India (PTI), the Deputy Chairperson of the Audit Bureau of Circulation (ABC), and member of the National Institute of Fashion Design, the National Institute of Design (NID), Indian Newspaper Society and Commonwealth Press Union London.