Dubai: Gangu Batra, a prominent Indian expatriate who worked for the UAE-based Jashanmal Group, died on Tuesday in New York.
He was about 84 years old.
Batra leaves behind three children, who all live in the United States. The Jashanmal management said Batra died of natural causes.
He served Jashanmal for almost six decades, rising through the ranks as a salesman in the early 1950s to most recently Group CEO of Jashanmal Group of Companies (JGC). Batra was also a JGC shareholder.
He had not been keeping well of late and had retired about a year and a half ago, a senior JGC manager said.
Mohan Jashanmal, Regional Manager, JGC, for Abu Dhabi, said: “I’ll always know him and treat him as my guru. He personally guided me. I am where I am today because of his guidance and mentorship.”
Mohan Jashanmal is also a shareholder in JGC.
He added: “He was a hard-working person, immaculate. He was responsible for forming the JGC from a Jashanmal family holding. He was invited in by my brother, the late Narain Jashanmal, in the early ’50s as a salesman in our Kuwait branch. He was smart and very efficient. He was one of our longest serving members.”
Tanvir Kanji from Inca Tanvir Advertising also paid tribute. “GB, as he was fondly known to his staff and colleagues, combined the rare quality of the street smart trader with the sophistication of a modern-day entrepreneur,” said Kanji.
“A micro manager with an elephant’s memory, he was intolerant of inefficiency as he himself had come up through the ranks with diligence and determination.
“His warmth and friendly demeanour rubbed off on any and everybody whom he came in contact with and he gave most of us a complex with his ability to converse in fluent Arabic. He surely will be missed.”
