K. Pandiarajan

K Pandiarajan (born 26 April 1959)^[1] is an Indian businessman and politician. He is the founder of Ma Foi Management Consultants Ltd, a human resource management company, and CIEL HR Services, another talent acquisition firm.^[6][7] He contested in the 2011 Tamil Nadu legislative assembly election as a Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) candidate and won from his Virdhunagar constituency.Again he contested in the 2016 Tamil Nadu legislative assembly election as a All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam candidate and won from his Avadi constituency. Pandiarajan has been appointed as Minister for School Education and Sports and Youth Welfare by J Jayalalithaa on 29th Aug 2016^[8][9]

Early life and education

K Pandiarajan was born on 26 April 1959 in a village near Sivakasi, Virudhunagar district.^[1][10] When Pandiarajan was three months old, he lost his father, a worker in a local match factory. He was brought up by his maternal grandparents.

He finished his schooling from the Sivakasi Hindu Nadar Victoria School, Sivakasi and in 1976,^[2] joined PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore for an undergraduate course in Engineering. After earning his BE (Hons) degree, Pandia Rajan enrolled for an MBA programme in Industrial Relations at Xavier Labour Relations Institute, Jamshedpur, which he completed in 1984.^[2]

Career

After graduating from XLRI in 1984, he joined the Indian operations of an industrial gas multi-national BOC Group and later Deutsche Babcock.^[2][11] In 1992,^[2][12] he co-founded Ma Foi Management Consultants along with his wife, to tap into opportunities arising out of the 1991 economic liberalisation policy in India. The initial focus of Ma Foi was placing middle-level and managerial people overseas, especially in the West Asia.^[13][14] In 2002, Ma Foi partnered with Editor, a Dutch head-hunter firm looking to expand their operations in West Asia and South-East Asia.^[2] He sold majority of his stake in Ma Foi to Vedior in 2004.^[15] In 2007, Dutch HR services firm Randstad acquired the operations of Ma Foi through its US$ 5.14 billion acquisition of Vedior. Pandiarajan became the Chairman of Randstad India.^[16][17]

On 5 April 2012, he announced the launch of a new venture focusing on management consulting and education space - Ma Foi Strategic Consultants Pvt. Ltd, with investments of over ₹ 25 crore in the first three years.^[3] The new company had got into an agreement with Randstad for using the brand Ma Foi for three years.^[4] Pandirajan, along with a few Ma Foi veterans, made his latest foray into the HR Services industry with the launch of CIEL HR Services in August 2015.^[18][19][7] CIEL HR focuses on talent acquisition for companies and flex staffing using modern analytical tools.

Political career: 2000 - till date

Pandiarajan joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2000, but later shifted to DMDK party founded by actor turned politician Vijaykanth.^[20][21][22] He contested in the 2011 Tamil Nadu legislative assembly election and won from his Virdhunagar constituency with a margin of 21,286.^{[3][4][9][20][23][24][25][26][27]}After a brief political stint that began in 2009, rebel DMDK MLA Ma Foi Pandiarajan is getting back to his favourite vocation - human resource consultancy. He switched loyalties to AIADMK in 2013. And finally back in business, Pandiarajan has restarted his HR consultancy in Bengaluru with an investment of ₹ 3 crore. He won as a MLA from Avadi Constituency in 2016 Tamil Nadu assembly elections as an AIADMK candidate. Ma Foi’ K. Pandiarajan as Minister for School Education and Sports and Youth Welfare.

Personal life

Pandiarajan lives in Chennai with his wife, Hemalatha.^[13] He has two children. His son's name is Suhaas Rajan and daughter's name is Sun

References