Chief Catalyst, Catalyst 360
Mr. M. S. A. Kumar, the current Senior Vice President of TiE Kerala and the Chief Catalyst at Catalyst 360. He is a graduate in Agriculture with an MBA from IIM, Ahmedabad. Kumar brings over forty years of rich business leadership experience across front line sales, product and profit center management. He started his career with Sandoz (India) Ltd as a Management Trainee and rose to the position of Executive Director in Bayer (India) Ltd. Before joining AV Thomas Group of companies in 1995 as Managing Director, Kumar was the Vice President of Shaw Wallace and Company, Chennai. During his 20 years tenure with the AV Thomas group, Kumar has been the Managing Director of AVT Natural Products Ltd and AVT McCormick Ingredients Pvt Ltd, Cochin since the inception of the companies in 1995.
Kumar has been involved in setting up and managing the two companies, both export oriented units, in a global context. He also led the founding of a state-of-the-art spice processing plant for the American JV, successfully managing the complexities of cross cultural operations both at the working team and at the board level. He was also responsible for overseeing the development of one of India’s largest contract farming operations for flowers at AVT Natural for processing into high value nutraceuticals raw material. He conceptualized and executed setting up of wholly owned subsidiary of AVT Natural Products in China for growing and processing of Marigold flowers.
Kumar has been active in several leading industry associations as well. He is a past chairman of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Kerala and past chairman of All India Spice Exporters Forum and the past Managing Director of AVT McCormick Ingredients Pvt Ltd.
