Pathik Rajmalbhai Kothari, head of Corporate Strategy & Change Management department at L&T is the new Managing Trustee of Vidyamandir Trust, Palanpur. He assumes charge from Ashish K. Mehta who had taken over as MT in 2011 from Nilima S Mehta. Mr Kothari has been associated with the activities of Vidyamandir Trust for past few years.

Kothari is a member of L&T's top management team and is currently Advisor to the Group Executive Chairman (Corporate Strategy & Change Management) and Director in two of its subsidiary companies. A seasoned professional, he has been associated with L&T for over four decades with experience in handling multiple functions. His field of specialisation includes Corporate Strategy, Supply Chain Management, Organisational Transformation, Human Resource Development, Total Quality Management, etc.

During his career, Kothari has received many national and international awards in Packaging such as India Star award, Asia Star award, World Star award, etc.

Welcoming the new MT, Rajiv Mehta, Chairman of Vidyamandir Trust say, “I am very happy and the trust is extremely privileged to have Pathikbhai join us as Managing Trustee. His depth of knowledge and years of experience working with people, will be of great importance in shaping the future of the trust and its institutions. I wish Pathikbhai the very best in his appointment.”

“Vidyamandir has provided quality education for over 6 decades largely because of the abilities and commitment of its staff and trustees. It has established itself as a centre of excellence and excelled in all round development of the students” says Kothari.

He adds that his endeavour will be to bring the lessons and best practices from industry to the not-for-profit organisation, while ensuring it remains cost-neutral, and further enhancing academic quality, while also seeking to develop the institution as a quality centre for providing education in other discplines such as the Arts, Business etc. “We will focus on strengthening the HR set up to institutionalise processes and ensure that the talent within the organisation maximises its potential and contribution. The aim will be to achieve significant growth in both horizontal and vertical directions,” Kothari concludes.

Ashish K. Mehta, the outgoing MT, says, “I am very confident that VMT will benefit from Pathikbhai’s involvement especially since he has been associated with different departments and functional roles during his career and has successfully headed large teams and steered many major initiatives in a very large organisation. This varied experience will greatly add to the bandwidth of the Trust. We are looking forward to his active contribution.”