K. Pandiarajan

K. Pandia Rajan (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.^[6] He contested in the 2011 Tamil Nadu legislative assembly election as a Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) candidate and won from his Virdhunagar constituency.^[7][8]

Early life and education

K. Pandia Rajan was born on 26 April 1959 in a village near Sivakasi, Virudhunagar district.^[1][9] When Pandia Rajan 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 B.E (Hons.) degree, Pandia Rajan enrolled for an MBA program 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 multinational BOC Group and later Deutsche Babcock.^[10][2] In 1992,^[2][11] 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 Middle East.^[12][13] In 2002, Ma Foi partnered with Vedior, a Dutch headhunter 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.^[14] 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.^[15][16]

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 INR 250 million 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]

Political career: 2000 - till date

Pandia Rajan joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2000, but later shifted to DMDK party founded by actor turned politician Vijaykanth.^[17][18][19] He contested in the 2011 Tamil Nadu legislative assembly election and won from his Virdhunagar constituency with a margin of 21286.^{[8][20][3][4][17][21][22][23][24]}

Personal life

Pandia Rajan lives in Chennai with his wife, Hemalatha.^[12]

References