The chairman of Mordril Investments, Sham Chellaram is in charge of managing his illustrious family’s investments and philanthropic activities. He is also the chairman emeritus of KC Maritime, the successor of the shipping company that made the family’s fortune, as well as of its family owned private equity real estate investment manager Mordril Properties; and chairman of the board of trustees of the Kishinchand Chellaram Foundation.

Founded in Chennai in 1916 by Sham’s grandfather Kishinchand Chellaram, the family company began as a textile business, and then spent over six decades as a trading company. After working for 16 years running the company in Nigeria, where it also has extensive interests, it was Sham who spearheaded both its move into the dry bulk shipping industry and its newfound focus on investment properties in the mid 1980s. Since then it has gone from strength to strength, with KC Maritime subsequently incorporated in 1999.