Mr. Kiran Manohar Deshmukh recently retired as the Chief Technology Officer of Sona BLW Precision Forgings Ltd, also known as Sona Comstar. He holds a bachelor's degree in technology in metallurgical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay. With almost fifty years of experience in automotive components manufacturing, Mr. Deshmukh was responsible for developing new technology partnerships and building competencies in manufacturing excellence at Sona Comstar. Before this role, he was the Executive Vice Chairman of Sona Koyo Steering Systems Ltd, where he led the company to receive the Deming Prize in 2003 and the TPM Excellence Awards in 2008 and 2017.
Mr. Deshmukh was involved in setting up the Sona Skill Development Center, the Group's initiative to skill people for manufacturing industries. For a brief period of three years, he headed the Sona Skill Development Centre as its Managing Director.
Mr. Deshmukh is a key member of the core group that spearheads the Visionary Leaders for Manufacturing Program (VLFM). This program, a collaborative effort of IIM (Calcutta), IIT (Kanpur), and IIT(Madras) in association with CII, is a testament to his leadership in driving industry initiatives.
He is a member of the Governing Council of the Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT), an industry-academia interface organization established by IIT Delhi that supports the innovation ecosystem. He is also a member of the Governing Council of the Indian Society for Quality.
Mr. Deshmukh's profound impact on quality management in India, Japan, and other countries has been widely recognized, earning him numerous prestigious awards. These include the Ashoka Award 2006 by the Indian Society for Quality, the Ishikawa-Kano Silver Medal 2022 by the Asian Network for Quality, and the Dr. Krishan Kumar Award for Excellence in Quality 2022-23 by the Society of Automotive Engineers India Foundation, underscoring his expertise and professional recognition. Mr. Deshmukh is the author of Conceptual Thinking in Daily Life, which was published in 2017 by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and CII.