Ashwin Suryakant Dani, the co-founder of Asian Paints Ltd died on September 28 at 79. Dani was an Indian billionaire businessman, who served as the the non-executive chairman of India’s largest paint company (Asian company) with operations in 16 countries. According to reports, he was the second-generation scion of the family that co-founded the company.
He served on the Board of the company in various capacities, including Vice Chairman & Managing Director, Non-Executive Vice Chairman and Non-Executive Chairman. “He joined the Company’s Board in 1970. He held the position of Vice Chairman and Managing Director of the Company from 1998 to 2009. Since 2009 he continued on the Board as the Non–Executive Director & Vice Chairman of the Board and the Company,” Asian Paints said.
Between 2018 to 2021, Dani held the position of Chairman of the Board and the Company. His father Suryakant was one of the co-founders of Asian Paints.
As per the latest Forbes report, Ashwin Dani and his family had a net worth of 7.7 billion USD (around Rs 64,000 crore), ranked 293 globally.
Dani has been a strong force in heralding the Company to technological excellence and has been responsible for the development and introduction of many new products for the first time in India. He pioneered the idea of Computerised Colour matching in the Indian industry. This concept is now widely used across industries in the field of paints, plastics, printing inks and textiles.
Asian Paints was the first paint company in India, and even in Asia, to implement this concept way back in 1975.
He was also instrumental in setting up the 50:50 Joint Venture between Asian Paints Limited and PPG Industries Inc., USA for industrial coatings. He was the founder Director on the Board of the first joint venture company with PPG Industries Inc, PPG Asian Paints Private Limited, which is currently in its 26th year of operations.
He also played an important role in shifting the packaging of water-thinnable paints from metal to plastic containers for decorative purposes. He was the founder and promoter for Loctite India, which is now Henkel Adhesive Technologies India.
Dani has been also associated with various government and trade bodies like the President’s Advisory Council of The University of Akron, Akron, Ohio, USA, The Central Board of Trustees – Employees Provident Fund of the Government of India, Vice President of FICCI, Board of Governors of the U.D.C.T. (Currently Institute of Chemical Technology) Alumni Association, Board of Management of Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai.
He was also the recipient of several awards as the Lifetime Achievement Award by CNBC-TV18, the Businessman of the Year award in 2015 by Business India magazine, the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Indian Paint Association and the Cheminor Award from the Indian Institute of Materials Management for Excellence in Supply Chain in 2002.