K. P. Singh

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Kushal Pal Singh ( or K.P. Singh as he is known) was born on August 15, 1931, at Bulandshahar in Uttar Pradesh, Today he presides over closely held DLF group [1], One of India’s largest real estate developer with an estimated land bank of 3,000 acres (12 km²) in prime city locations. Singh, who owns 99.5% of parent DLF Universal with his family, is worth at least $5 billion as per Forbes. [2]. The company plans to go public in the year 2006.

[edit] Early life

Mr. K. P. Singh comes from a family of successful landlords and lawyers. After graduating in Science from Meerut College, he went to UK to pursue higher studies in Aeronautical Engineering. Along the line, Mr. Singh got selected to the Indian Army, by British Officers services Selection Board, UK. Subsequently, he joined the Indian Military Academy at Dehradun. He thereafter was commissioned into The Deccan Horse- a renowned cavalry regiment of The Indian Army.

[edit] Career in DLF

He is the son-in-law of the founder of the DLF group, Chaudhury Raghvender Singh. He left the army and joined his father-in-law. In 1960, he joined American Universal Electric Company, a joint venture between Universal Electric Company of Owosso, Michigan and the Singh family. Subsequently, he promoted another company, i.e. Willard India Limited in collaboration with ESB inc of Philadelphia for manufacturing automatic and industrial batteries in India and became its Managing Director. In 1979, he joined Delhi Lease and Finance Universal Limited. American Universal Company merged with DLF Universal Limited and Mr. Singh became the Managing Director of this new company.

The late Raghvender Singh developed no less than 20 colonies in Delhi (South Extension, Greater Kailash and Hauz Khas). Following these successes, DLF expanded into Gurgaon and pioneered the development this township. G.E was a key anchor that lead to a large number of Multinational and Indian organisations to base their corporate offices in Gurgaon.

DLF

KP was also appointed National Advisor of GE in 1989 and continued in this position till 1993 when he was elevated as a member of GE's National Advisory Board in New York. His close relationship with Jack Welch not only helped in the growth of businesses of GE in India but also propelled India's developmental efforts to capitalise on its huge bank of intellectual wealth in the technology and IT sector.