Former President of India, Ram Nath Kovind, presented the IMC Distinguished Alumni Award 2022 to Kabir Ahmed Shakir, a 1991-93 batch alumnus of Bharathidasan Institute of Management (BIM), Tiruchirappalli during the 12th Indian Management Conclave 2022 at Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode on December 10, 2022, as stated in a press release. 

The past recipients include Ravi Kumar, Former President, Infosys; RS Sodhi, MD, Amul; H Harikrishna, MD, Payments Bank; Neeraj Kakkar, MD, Hector Beverages and Rituparna Chakraborty, Co-Founder, Team Lease. While congratulating the recipient, the president reminded the audience of the importance of Kozhikode in India’s freedom movement. He also urged the participants to achieve excellence in whatever they do.

Congratulating Kabir for this distinguished recognition, BIM Trichy Director Dr Asit K Barma commented that the institute is proud of its 4,500+ BIM alumni who are making a significant impact across the globe in industry, government and academics. 

Kabir Ahmed Shakir is the Chief Financial Officer at Tata Communications. In this role, Kabir is responsible for the strategic financial management of the company. Before Tata Communications, Kabir was the Chief Financial Officer at Microsoft India, responsible for its overall finance leadership across all entities in India. Preceding this, he spent over 23 years with Unilever in leadership roles across multiple geographies — International Funding Director in the Netherlands, Global Supply Chain Finance Director in the UK, CFO of the Home and Personal Care business in India and Global CFO for the Skincare category in the UK.

IMC Distinguished Alumni Awards (IMC DAA), organised by MBAUniverse, are presented to outstanding business leaders every year who graduate from an Indian business school, making a national and global impact.