Young, driven, powerful — Lakshmi Venu as MD of aluminium and manganese cast producer

The story of Lakshmi Venu, the managing director of Sundaram-Clayton Ltd (SCL), is a testament to the legacy's strides. Despite being the daughter of two business giants, she has proven herself a worthy leader in the production company of aluminium and manganese cast for automotive sector — SCL with utmost dedication and strategic decisions.

Born in 1983 (41 years old), a fifth-generation businesswoman, Lakshmi, completed her schooling at Chennai's Sishya School and went for her degree in Economics at Yale University. She also has a doctorate in engineering management from the University of Warwick.

A multi-step demerger and restructuring of the erstwhile Sundaram-Clayton over the past year has put the next generation of the family firmly at the wheel. Venu is the MD of a modified Sundaram-Clayton that will be listed separately, while her younger brother Sudarshan Venu is the MD of TVS Motor Company’s parent TVS Holdings. This comes after the erstwhile TVS Group split amicably in 2022, leaving the four family branches—of T.S.Rajam, T.S. Krishna, T.S. Srinivasan and T.S. Santhanam and their dozens of businesses—to run their ventures separately, and independent of a holding company.

She started her profession at Sundaram Auto Components Limited, a TVS Group subsidiary and has led TVS Holdings Limited, earlier known as SCL, as Managing Director for the past two years, following her tenure as joint MD since 2010. The firm was handed over to her by her father

It took her around 10 years, using her strategic willpower, to expand the entity's global presence by establishing up a foundry in South Carolina in the United States in 2019 and cementing associations with crucial original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) such as Cummins, Hyundai, Volvo, Paccar and Daimler.

With her own net worth of INR 22,470 crore (approximately USD 26.7 billion) as of November 2023, SCL has a market capitalisation of INR 27,888 crore (approximately USD 33 billion) as of June 28, 2024. She has been involved with the business strategy, corporate affairs, product design, and sales and marketing departments of TVS.

She is also associated with Tractors and Farm Equipment Limited, The third-largest tractor manufacturing business in the world, helmed by her mother, Mallika Srinivasan, as a Director and Deputy MD.

According to disclosures, In August 2024, Dr Lakshmi Venu exited the board as she did not propose to be reappointed due to her extensive responsibilities and commitments at both TAFE and SCL. Lakshmi Venu continues to serve as a non-executive and non-independent director of TVS Motor Co. and the managing director of Sundaram Clayton LTD.

She proudly ushers the legacy that traces back to her great-grandfather, TV Sundaram Iyengar, the founder of the TVS Group.