Alka Mittal appointed as ONGC's first woman Chairperson and Managing Director

Dr. Alka Mittal took additional charge as the Interim Chairperson and Managing Director of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) on January 4, 2022. She has become the first woman to hold the post. She succeeds Subhash Kumar who retired on December 31.

Mittal will hold office as ONGC's first woman Chairperson and Managing Director till a period of six months from January 1 or till the appointment of a regular incumbent, whichever is earlier. 

The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) approved the Petroleum Ministry's proposal to entrust additional charge of the post of ONGC's Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) to Alka Mittal for a period of six months with effect from January 1, 2022, or till the appointment of a regular incumbent to the post, or until further order, whichever is earliest.

ONGC’s last full-time director was Shashi Shanker, who had retired from the post on March 31, 2021. No full-time replacement was selected at that time. Subhash Kumar, former Director (Finance), was given the additional charge of chairman and managing director on the basis of seniority in the PSU’s board of directors.

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Who is Alka Mittal?

•Dr Alka Mittal has been serving as ONGC Director (HR) since November 27, 2018. She is the senior-most Director on the Board of the energy company. 

•She has a postgraduate in Economics, MBA (HRM) and Doctorate in Commerce and Business Studies. She had joined ONGC as a Graduate Trainee in 1985.

•She had become the first woman to join the company’s board on November 27, 2018 and the first woman to hold the charge of a full-time Director in ONGC’s history.

•She has been on the board of ONGC Mangalore Petrochemicals Limited (OMPL) since August 2015. She is also on the board of National HRD Network (NHRDN) and IIM Tiruchirappalli. 

•She has a rich experience spanning over three and a half decades. She brought in sustainability in the talent acquisition process by adopting Green Recruitment practice in ONGC through the online application process, saving time, cost and resources. 

•She had also implemented digitization of various HR processes, including claim adjustments, HR workflows, automation of training process, digitization of trust records and corporate promotion process.

•Before being appointed as Director (HR), Dr. Mittal had held the post of Chief Skill Development (CSD) of the Company. As a CSD, she had brought in uniformity in the working of the Skill Development Centers of ONGC. 

•She has also earlier worked as Head CSR at Corporate Office and taken up major CSR projects across India. 

•She has also played an instrumental role in training over 11,000 Graduate Trainees (GTs) of ONGC since 2001.

•She also heads the Women Development Forum of ONGC and is an Executive Committee member of NIPM (National Institute of Personnel Management). She earlier served as the President of Forum for Women in Public Sector (WIPs) Northern Region.