S. N. Subrahmanyan
Chairman & Managing Director
S N Subrahmanyan (SNS) is the Chairman & Managing Director of Larsen & Toubro, a multi-billion-dollar conglomerate, spanning across Engineering, Infrastructure, Information Technology and Financial Services. He also holds diverse leadership positions as Chairperson of L&T Finance Holdings Ltd and Chairman of LTIMindtree, L&T Technology Services, and L&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad) Limited.
SNS, over the years, has played a pivotal role in guiding the Company's infrastructure business to become the largest in India and among the biggest globally. Now, he is focused on driving L&T's diverse business interests towards new heights by leveraging the power of digitalisation, technology, transition to green energy and fostering a people-centric culture. This multi-pronged approach has already started pivoting L&T into a tech-driven engineering solutions and services powerhouse.
Hailing from Chennai, SNS embarked on his professional journey with L&T in 1984 as a Project Planning Engineer with a degree in civil engineering from the National Institute of Technology, Kurukshetra and a postgraduate degree in business management from Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Pune. He furthered his education with an Executive Management Programme from the London Business School. Mentored by industry stalwarts, he took on roles of increasing responsibility across various business verticals and joined the L&T Board in 2011.
Notable achievements under SNS's leadership include the execution of diverse projects like the Statue of Unity, ITER, Dual Feed Crackers, Offshore Platforms, K9 Vajra, Atal Setu, Ayodhya Ram Mandir, in the offing Bullet Train and more – each recognised for being the ‘tallest’, ‘largest, ‘longest’, ‘smartest’, ‘most complex’, or ‘first’ in their respective categories. His entrepreneurial mindset propelled L&T into untapped geographies, including the Middle East, Africa, and ASEAN, establishing the Company's credentials globally. This has led to L&T being recognised among Asia’s Most Honoured Companies by Institutional Investor, the Company of the Year by Business Standard in 2020, among the world's best employers on the Forbes' list and one of India’s Best Employers among Nation-Builders in 2023 by the Great Place to Work (GPTW) institute.
SNS himself has garnered numerous accolades. He won the Eminent Engineer award from the Engineering Council of India in 2024. Apart from being featured on the cover of Fortune magazine’s October 2023 edition as India’s Best CEO, he is also the winner in the Infrastructure & Engineering category of the Business Today-PwC India’s Best CEOs ranking in March 2022, was ranked 8th in the Construction Week Power 100 Ranking for 2022 and was honoured as the Infrastructure Person of the Year in 2012. In 2020, he achieved the Top CEO (Sell Side) and the 3rd Best CEO (Overall) in the All-Asia Executive Team Survey conducted by Institutional Investor and recognised as the CEO of the Year by the leading Indian news channel, CNBC-Awaaz. His exemplary leadership was also recognised with the Emergent CEO Award in 2019, and he received the Leading Engineering Personality award from the Institution of Engineers (India) in 2014.
SNS holds prominent positions within various industry bodies, construction institutions and councils, showcasing his influential presence in these domains. As one of the nine founding members of the Climate Finance Leadership Initiative (CFLI) India, he actively contributes to bringing global scale and influence to this significant initiative. Additionally, he serves as the regular honorary chairperson of the Board of Governors at the National Institute of Technology-Rourkela, a position bestowed upon him by the Education Ministry. In February 2021, he was appointed by the Union Ministry of Labour & Employment as the Chairman of the National Safety Council for two years. In this capacity, he guided the council in playing a crucial role in ensuring workplace safety under the new Occupational Safety, Health, and Working Conditions Code, 2020 (OSH Code, 2020).
Beyond his professional pursuits, SNS embodies a diverse range of interests that reveal the multi-faceted dimensions of his personality. A cricket aficionado and a passionate runner, he emphasises the importance of physical activity through his daily walks and runs. Notably, his appreciation extends beyond sports and fitness, as he also finds solace and passion in the world of Western classical music.
