K. Pandiarajan

K. Pandiarajan (born 13 May 1959) popularly known as Ma Foi K. Pandiarajan is an Indian businessman and politician from Tamil Nadu. Ma Foi K. Pandiarajan is Minister of Avadi Constituency from 2016. He is the founder of Ma Foi Management Consultants Ltd, a human resource management company, and CIEL HR Services, another talent acquisition firm. He contested in the 2011 Tamil Nadu legislative assembly election as a Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) candidate and won from his Virdhunagar constituency. Again he contested in the 2016 Tamil Nadu legislative assembly election as an All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) candidate and won from his Avadi constituency.

Ma Foi K. Pandiarajan
K. Pandiarajan in Soosaiya Nagar, Chennai on 71st Independence Day of India.
Minister for Tamil Official Language, Tamil Culture and Archaeology (Government of Tamil Nadu)
Assumed office
21 August 2017
Chief ministerEdappadi K. Palaniswami
Preceded byPosition established
ConstituencyAvadi
Minister for School Education, Youth Affairs and Sports (Government of Tamil Nadu)
In office
29 August 2016 – 17 May 2017
Chief ministerJ. Jayalalithaa
O. Panneerselvam
Preceded byP. Benjamin
Succeeded byK. A. Sengottaiyan
Member of Tamil Nadu legislative assembly
Assumed office
15 May 2011
Personal details
Born (1959-05-13) 13 May 1959
Villampatti, Sivakasi, Madras State (now Virudhunagar District, Tamil Nadu, India)
Political partyAll India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
Other political
affiliations		Bharatiya Janata Party
Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam
Spouse(s)Hemalatha[1]
ChildrenSuhaas (son)
Sunila (daughter)
ResidenceChennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Alma materPSG College of Technology, Coimbatore (BE)
XLRI, Jamshedpur (MBA)
OccupationBusinessman, politician
PortfolioChairman at Ma Foi Solutions

Pandiarajan was appointed as Minister for School Education, Youth Welfare and Sports by former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, J. Jayalalithaa on 29 August 2016. He remained in her cabinet until her death on 5 December 2016. He was immediately sworn into the same office by the new Chief Minister, O. Panneerselvam. He half-heartedly supported the appointment of V. K. Sasikala as General Secretary of AIADMK before deciding to support the Panneerselvam faction when Panneerselvam turned against Sasikala. He was relieved of his ministerial office when Edappadi K. Palaniswami became Chief Minister. Later, in August 2017, Panneerselvam's and Palaniswami's Factions joined and gained majority in the house. Pandiarajan was appointed as Minister for Tamil language, Tamil Culture and Archaeology.

Early life and education

K.Pandiarajan was born on 26 April 1959 in a village near [Sivakasi], [Virudhunagar] district.[2] When Pandiarajan was three months old, he lost his father, a worker in a local match factory. He was brought up by his maternal grandparents.

He finished his schooling from the Sivakasi Hindu Nadar Victoria School, Sivakasi and in 1976, joined PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore for an undergraduate course in Engineering. After earning his BE (Hons) degree, Pandia Rajan enrolled for an MBA programme in Industrial Relations at Xavier Labour Relations Institute, Jamshedpur, which he completed in 1984.[3]

Career

After graduating from XLRI in 1984, he joined the Indian operations of an industrial gas multi-national BOC Group and later Deutsche Babcock.[3][4] In 1992,[3][5] he co-founded Ma Foi Management Consultants along with his wife, to tap into opportunities arising out of the 1991 economic liberalisation policy in India. The initial focus of Ma Foi was placing middle-level and managerial people overseas, especially in the West Asia.[6][7] In 2002, Ma Foi partnered with Editor, a Dutch head-hunter firm looking to expand their operations in West Asia and South-East Asia.[3] He sold majority of his stake in Ma Foi to Vedior in 2004.[8] In 2007, Dutch HR services firm Randstad acquired the operations of Ma Foi through its US$5.14 billion acquisition of Vedior. Pandiarajan became the Chairman of Randstad India.[9]

On 5 April 2012, he announced the launch of a new venture focusing on management consulting and education space – Ma Foi Strategic Consultants Pvt. Ltd, with investments of over ₹ 250 million in the first three years.[1] The new company had got into an agreement with Randstad for using the brand Ma Foi for three years.[10] Pandirajan, along with a few Ma Foi veterans, made his latest foray into the HR Services industry with the launch of CIEL HR Services in August 2015.[11] CIEL HR focuses on talent acquisition for companies and flex staffing using modern analytical tools.

Political career: 2000 – till date

Pandiarajan joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2000, but later shifted to DMDK party founded by actor turned politician Vijaykanth.[12][13][14] He contested in the 2011 Tamil Nadu legislative assembly election and won from his Virdhunagar constituency with a margin of 21,286.[15] He switched loyalties to AIADMK in 2013 and won as a MLA from Avadi Constituency in 2016 Tamil Nadu assembly elections as an AIADMK candidate.

In February 2017, following the appointment of Edappadi K. Palaniswami as Chief Minister in place of O. Paneerselvam, K. A. Sengottaiyan replaced Pandiarajan as Minister for School Education. Pandiarajan was the only cabinet minister to have supported Paneerselvam during a party dispute in which V. K. Sasikala was being touted as a possible Chief Minister. The appointment of Sengottaiyan was the only change made to the cabinet by Palaniswami at that time.[16]

On 21 August 2017, with the merger of AIADMK factions headed by Edappadi K. Palaniswami and O. Panneerselvam, Pandiarajan was again sworn in as a cabinet minister with portfolios of archaeology, Tamil language and Culture.[17]

Personal life

Pandiarajan lives in Chennai with his wife, Hemalatha. He was born near Sivakasi.[6] He has two children.

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References
  1. "Ma Foi To Diversy Its Business Beyond Staffing Solutions in India". sulekha.com. 7 April 2012. Archived from the original on 3 February 2013. Retrieved 7 June 2012. by Jayashankar Menon
  2. "Thiru K. Pandiarajan Bio". hindustanpages.com. Archived from the original on 25 January 2013. Retrieved 7 June 2012.
  3. "Cover Story : Ma Foi SUCCESS". maduraimessenger.org. Retrieved 7 June 2012. by Xavier Roderic Hoffman
  4. "HR Conference 2011 – Speaker Bio K. Pandia Rajan". Archived from the original on 25 January 2013. Retrieved 7 June 2012.
  5. "Competency Matrix as a tool for organisational development as a tool" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 12 May 2013. Retrieved 7 June 2012. by J. Mathangi, Birla Institute of Management Technology
  6. "An amazing story: From Rs 60,000 to Rs 435 crore!". Rediff. 16 April 2008. Retrieved 7 June 2012.
  7. "How Pandia Rajan built from scratch the country's largest human resource consulting firm—Ma Foi". The Economic Times. 25 May 2012. Retrieved 7 June 2012.
  8. "Vedior to use Ma Foi for Asian expansion". The Hindu. 10 July 2004. Retrieved 7 June 2012.
  9. "Creating value is more important than playing a valuation game". The Hindu. 12 March 2012. Retrieved 7 June 2012.
  10. "Ma Foi founders start afresh". The Hindu. 5 April 2012. Retrieved 7 June 2012.
  11. "Ma Foi founder return, launch analytics based HR services company". The Hindu. Retrieved 6 August 2015.
  12. "HR professional throws hat into poll ring". Sulekha News. Archived from the original on 4 February 2013. Retrieved 7 June 2012.
  13. "MBA to MLA". The Financial Express. Retrieved 7 June 2012.
  14. "Ma Foi founder contests election". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 7 June 2012.
  15. "HR czar, corporate innovator, now a Tamil Nadu MLA". The Indian Express. Retrieved 7 June 2012.
  16. Mariappan, Julie (16 February 2017). "31-member Palaniswami cabinet to be sworn in at 4.30 pm". The Economic Times. Retrieved 5 May 2017.
  17. http://www.ptinews.com/news/9000809_OPS-sworn-in-as-TN-deputy-CM--to-hold-finance-portfolio
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