Soma Mondal Became SAIL's First Woman Head

Soma Mondal has taken over as first-ever woman head of Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL). She succeeds Anil Kumar Chaudhary, who superannuated on Thursday. Mondal has the distinction of not only being the first woman functional director of SAIL but also the first woman chairperson.

Prior to this, Mondal was the Director (Commercial) of SAIL, according to an official statement by the country's largest steel-making company. Before joining SAIL as a Director, she was the Director (Commercial) at NALCO.

After assuming the charge, Mondal addressed the SAIL collective and said, "SAIL has a rich legacy with enormous contributions from its employees and leadership over the decades. It has been at the forefront of nation-building."

"Our immediate focus is to improve the top-line and the bottom-line of the company. We are charting out all strategies to improve value for all our stakeholders and make it structurally stronger," she added.

A graduate in electrical engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela in 1984, Mondal started her career as a Graduate Engineer Trainee at NALCO and rose to become Director (Commercial) at NALCO. She then joined SAIL in 2017 as the Director (Commercial) and subsequently has become the Chairman of SAIL.

As per the company's statement, Mondal was instrumental in introducing new marketing strategies and products at SAIL enriching the company's product basket.

"Under her able leadership, the company launched niche branded products like NEX (Structural) and SAIL SeQR (TMT bars). Both these products have emerged as best-in-class in their respective categories," it said.

Moreover, Mondal is a member of CII's national committee on steel and chairperson of CII's sub-committee on safeguard for tariff and non-tariff barrier.