Thermax group of companies executive chairperson Anu Agra will hand over full operational charge to current MD, Abhay Nalawade, who takes over as CEO of the group from July 1. "Nalawade will have full responsibility and authority for overall company operations. It is time to make it more professional give him autonomy and let him be accountable,"Aga said. "These changes are being made with a long-term perspective and will show results in the next three to four years," Aga added. Aga says she is neither withdrawing from the organisation nor selling off but would continue her involvement with the company. Strategic business plans, bringing about a service orientation in the organisation, grooming talent, human resources/industrial relations and interface with the outside world will be on her agenda.

Prakash Kulkarni, who was heading the joint venture Thermax Babcock & Wilcox (TBW) has been appointed at joint managing director of Thermax Ltd. Kulkarni will take charge of Thermax's boiler, chiller and energy systems business and the manufacturing set-up at Chinchwad. Joining the Rs 100 crore plust JV, TBW. as MD is Girish Trivedi who was former director--finance, HR and subsidiaries. Among the other new introductions is the creation of the finance committee at the board level to take a critical look at the company's operations.

Thermax plans to moveinto BOOT projects and operations and maintenance schemes for power and water/waste water projects. There are also plans to offer attractive service packages to customers in the air conditioning and waste management areas. Nalawade says the trend worldwide the trend is that industry want to focus on their core business and would like to hand over critical but none-core areas to outside agency. Thermax wants to enter this segment and offer services along with its products.

"It would also mean generating some demand in the industry which has become reluctant to make large investments," says Nalawade.

The restructuring of the regional set-ups would help integrate business operation for stronger synergy between the company's business division and regional operations and move closer to the customer.