Indigo co-founders Rakesh Gangwal and Rahul Bhatia have emerged as the wealthiest aviation billionaires with a wealth of US$ 3.6 billion and US$ 3.3 billion respectively, according to the 2023 Hurun Global Rich List.
Kolkata-born Gangwal, who lives in San Francisco, held a 33.78 per cent stake in InterGlobe Aviation, the parent company of IndiGo airlines. His first foray in the aviation industry was in 1980 when he worked as an associate with Booz & Allen Hamilton Inc.
Before starting IndiGo airlines in 2006, Gangwal was chairman, president and CEO of WorldSpan Technologies between 2003 and 2007. he resigned from the Board of Directors in February 2022 and later that year sold 2.74 per cent stake that was worth Rs 2,005 crore.
Following Gangwal's resignation, Rahul Bhatia took full charge of the airlines. He was appointed the Managing Director of InterGlobe Aviation in February 2022 for a five-year period . He holds a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Waterloo in Ontario in Canada.
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InterGlobe, in 2022, partnered with logistics firm UPS in a joint venture to establish a new logistics brand called Movin, in India.
Worldwide, the 2023 M3M Hurun Global Rich List saw the addition of 16 Indian billionaires and country occupied the third position in the list which added the most number of billionaires. Indian billionaires have added approximately 360 billion dollars to their total wealth in the last five years.
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