Dr Anish Shah, Group CEO and Managing Director of the Mahindra Group, was named the Business Leader of the Year at the NDTV Profit Business Leadership Awards 2026 held on Sunday. The award recognises his leadership in driving sustained financial performance, long-term value creation and purpose-led growth at the diversified conglomerate.
The Business Leader of the Year category featured some of India's most prominent corporate leaders, representing companies across sectors that have delivered strong operational and financial performance while creating long-term value for shareholders and stakeholders.
K. N. Radhakrishnan, Director & CEO, TVS Motors, P. Venkatesalu, MD & CEO, Trent, Inder T. Jaisinghani, Chairman & MD, Polycab India, Vinita Gupta, CEO, Lupin and Rajiv Bajaj, MD & CEO, Bajaj Auto were present in the list. Hisashi Takeuchi, MD & CEO, Maruti Suzuki India, S. N. Subrahmanyan, Chairman & MD, L&T were other nominees.
Under Shah's leadership, the Mahindra Group has further strengthened its position as one of India's most admired and diversified business enterprises. The Group has delivered exponential growth in both revenue and profit across businesses, that has resulted in an increase in M&M's market cap of 12x since April 2020. The annualised net profit growth from FY21 has been 57%. This performance reflects the power of combining scale, profitability and purpose.
Shah has been instrumental in reshaping the Mahindra Group with a focus on purpose-driven growth, technology leadership and value creation across its businesses.
Before joining the Mahindra Group, Shah served as President and CEO of GE Capital India, where he led the transformation of the business and turned around the SBI Card joint venture. He has also held leadership roles at GE Capital globally, Bank of America and Bain & Company.
Beyond the Mahindra Group, Shah has played an active role in shaping industry and public policy. He served as President of FICCI in 2024 and currently co-chairs the India-Australia CEO Forum and the India Alliance of CEOs for Climate Change. He is also a member of several national and global advisory bodies, including the World Economic Forum's International Business Council and the NITI Frontier Tech Hub Expert Council for AI.
Shah holds a PhD from Carnegie Mellon's Tepper School of Business and a Post-Graduate Diploma in Management from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. His leadership philosophy centres on the belief that "purpose drives profits", an approach that has shaped Mahindra's growth strategy and broader contribution to India's economic development.
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