Kakkar's appointment makes him the first Indian to make it to the executive committee of Thomas Cook in its 160-year history. An elated Kakkar said: "Though I will be on the worldwide board, I will continue to work in India -- the only one to be based in India."

Apart from his current responsibilities, Kakkar will additionally focus on the development and effective implementation of a coherent business strategy and also provide clear, decisive and responsive leadership to the company. Kakkar is currently responsible for operations in 10 countries in the Indian Ocean region.

Since his appointment in July 1997 (he was formerly with General Electric Company), Kakkar has spearheaded the launch of Visa Travel Money andMoneygram products, theme retail branches, Teledirect operations and potential acquisitions. His current challenges are managing the impact of the euro and completing Millennium compliance for operations in the Indian Ocean region.

"We are currently in the process of implementing ERP for the company in India and are the first ones to do so in the travel services industry," Kakkar said.

With his elevation to the Thomas Cook Group executive committee, Kakkar joins the increasing list of Indians who have made it to the top of multinational organisations. The list includes Rajat Gupta of Mckinsey & Co, Rana Talwar of Standard Chartered Bank, Victor Menezes of Citibank and Ambi Venkatesan of Bank of America.

Thomas Cook (India), which is the only publicly quoted company in the Thomas Cook group, posted a net profit of Rs 14.48 crore during the year ended December 31, 1997, a marginal increase over the previous year's net profit of Rs 13.65 crore. The company's total income was at Rs 56.69 crore against Rs54.18 crore in 1996.