R Gopalakrishnan (called Gopal) has worked for 31 years in India’s most Indian multinational, Hindustan Unilever - and for 12 years in India’s most multinational Indian company - Tata.

Currently, he is the executive director of Tata Sons. He is also the chairman of Tata AutoComp Systems, Rallis India and Advinus Therapeutics, vice chairman of Tata Chemicals, and a director of companies like Tata Motors and Tata Power.

He also serves as an independent director on the boards of the Indian subsidiaries of Akzo Nobel and BP Castrol.

Gopal studied physics at Calcutta University and engineering at IIT. From 1967, he served Hindustan Unilever for over three decades in various capacities. The appointments held by Gopal from 1990 onwards were: chairman of Unilever Arabia (based in Jeddah), followed by managing director of Brooke Bond Lipton India (based in Bangalore), followed by vice chairman of Hindustan Lever.

He joined Tata Sons in September 1998 as executive director.

Gopal is involved with education through his board memberships of a school and two management institutes. He is a past president of All India Management Association. He has delivered guest lectures in India and abroad. His articles have been published in management journals and financial newspapers.

In 2007, he authored his first book, The Case of the Bonsai Manager, published by Penguin India.