Rajesh Ponnuru took over as the Chief Operating Officer of Paperboard and Specialty Papers Business in May 2024. Prior to this, he was the Chief Operating Officer of the Packaging and Printing Business. A Chemical Engineer from IIT Madras, he joined ITC in 2004.

In his tenure of over two decades, Rajesh has held various leadership positions across ITC's businesses including ITD, Foods and Packaging. He was part of the team responsible for setting up a globally benchmarked manufacturing unit at ITD Ranjangaon. He was instrumental in establishing the supply chain and product development functions for ITC's newly incubated Beverages and Dairy businesses. Rajesh also spearheaded - 'Project Zen' - the supply chain planning digitisation initiative at the Foods division, that aims to synchronise planning across the chain from demand forecasting till material procurement.