Manoj tirodkar biography of donald

For most kids, the summer holiday that follows the tenth standard exams is a restless time. The future is ripe with possibilities as they wait for the results. Choices have to be made, decisions have to be taken and they are likely to have consequences that reach far into life. So it was for Manoj Tirodkarin 1980. Having given his Secondary School Certificate (SSC) exams from Chikitsak Samuha Shirolkar High School, Girgaum, the future chairman of the Rs 3,400 crore GTL group was training at the offices of his family shipping agency as he waited to go to junior college.

It was there that Tirodkar met a European gentleman, a business associate of his father's, who spoke to him of the possibility of getting some work experience in Germany. It was not an offer that Mumbai teens received as a matter of course in those days and Tirodkar might have been overwhelmed. Except he wasn't. "It was a very easy decision," he says. "I started making preparations the same day. I was sure I could learn more from working in Germany than from going to college in Mumbai."

While in Germany, Tirodkar received the occasional letter from his father, suggesting he resume his studies, but ne never did. "For a while I kept up the pretence of doing a correspondence course from a British college. But I was actually learning through practice," he says.

Today, Tirodkar, 47, is the chairman of Asia's biggest telecom infrastructure company and lectures at Mumbai's top business schools, where he makes no bones about his lack of formal education. "I was lucky, but I wouldn't recommend it to everyone," he says. "In my career, I have ultimately relied on qualified employees to help me succeed. In hindsight, I believe a formal education might have given me better perspective."

In Gujarati slang, those who learn though books are called padhel

MUMBAI: Manoj Tirodkar, the 45-year-old chairman & managing director of GTL Group, is a phoenix.

The man, who was ostracised by the market about a decade ago for allegedly having a hand in a stock market scandal at the turn of the century, last week lined up Citigroup and Barclays to advise him on the biggest-ever takeover in India in cash.

“Aircel is delighted to be associated with Manoj. Under his leadership and single-minded focus on value creation, his group has become the leading independent tower company globally. Manoj is sagacious, humble and hands on,” said Gurdeep Singh, the chief operating officer of Aircel, the company whose towers were bought by Mr Tirodkar. SBI Capital, the investment arm of India’s largest bank, organised debt of

Rs 5,000 crore from a consortium of lenders to finance the acquisition.

Such fulsome praise from industry, along with the reposing of faith by lenders, is a remarkable turn of events for a man who had seemed down and out some years ago. The college drop-out, who is ranked 84th in the Forbes list of richest Indians, featured a

long with Nimesh Kampani of JM Financial and hotelier PRS Oberoi, had humble beginnings in the chawls of Mumbai’s Girgaum, famous for the spectacular Ganpathi immersion into the Arabian Sea.

Bad Times

The rise has had its share of rough and tumble. An association with fallen stockbroker Ketan Parekh pushed back his march by years. But this bulky Maharashtrian has fought back in business, as he is now doing to his fitness with controlled diet.

“Between 2000 and 2005, life turned upside down,’’ said Mr Tirodkar in an interview in his fourth-floor office overlooking the cranes and ships on the Mumbai Port Trust. “It changed my lifestyle, psyche...I stay aloof. I became kind of an introvert.”

When the stock market scandal blew up in 2000, Mr Tirodkar was accused of having links with Ketan Parekh who was alleged to have rigged up the famous K-10 stocks, inc