HM Nerurkar, managing director, Tata Steel, has been appointed as the chairman of TRL Krosaki Refractories with effect from August 27, 2011. He took over from Dr JJ Irani who was the company's chairman for last 28 years.

He is on the board of several Tata companies including Centennial Steel; Tata Steel (Thailand); NatSteel Asia; NatSteel; Corus Consulting, UK; Tata BlueScope Steel; New Millenium Capital Corporation; Tata Steel Holdings; Tata Steel Global Holdings; Tata Steel Global Minerals; Tata Steel Global Procurement Co; and Tata Steel Europe.

Nerurkar, born on October 20, 1948, is a B Tech Degree holder in Metallurgical Engineering from the College of Engineering, Pune, and had joined Tata Steel in February 1982. After a short stint in the R&D Division, he worked for over 20 years in the areas of quality control (as the chief metallurgist), steel and primary mills, marketing, supply chain, projects, etc before rising to the level of vice president (flat products) in November 2002. He was appointed as the vice president (Kalinganagar project) in November 2004 and rose to the position of chief operating officer (steel) in September 2007. He became the executive director on the board of Tata Steel in April 2009 and on October 1, 2009, took over as the managing director, in charge of India and Southeast Asia operations.

He is also a member on the boards of directors of World Steel Association, Belgium; CEDEP, France; vice president (Ferrous Division), Indian Institute of Metals; member of the CII National Committee on Steel; member and chairman of the Internal Security Task Force of CII Eastern Region; president of the Institute for Steel Development & Growth; member of the Governing Council, All India Management Association, and chairman of the board of governors of XLRI, Jamshedpur.

He has won several awards — National Metallurgist (Ferrous Metallurgy) in 1987, Visveswaraya Award in 1988, SAIL Gold Medal in 1989, Steel 80s Award in 1990, SMS Demag Excellence Award in 2002 and Tata Gold Medal in 2004 — all coveted awards bestowed by the Indian Institute of Metals. He is a member of the general body of the Sports Authority of India set up by the Government of India. He is also the member of the governing body of CSIR Society. He has been conferred with the 'CEO with HR Orientation Award' by Asia's Best Employer Brand Awards in 2010 and also by Star News. Recently, he has been honoured with Melvin Jones Fellowship Award from Lions Club International.