Xerxes Desai serves as a member on the IIHS board.
Education:
A graduate of Bombay and Oxford Universities and briefly a fellow and lecturer at Bombay’s Elphinstone College, Xerxes continued his involvement in education by serving on the trust boards or management committees of well-known institutions such as the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, the International Institute for Population Studies and the Indian Institute of Science.
Xerxes is a visionary, globally recognised as the man who made “Titan” one of the few internationally renowned Indian brands. He began his career with the Tata group as a member of the Tata Administrative Service, and has worked in Tata Chemicals, Tata Industries, Indian Hotels and Tata Press. He started Titan Industries in the early 1980s, revolutionised the watch industry in India and made Titan the most admired Indian watch brand.
Xerxes is currently on the boards of the National Institute of Advanced Studies, the National Centre for the Performing Arts and the Titan Foundation for Education.
In 1994, Xerxes was inducted into the Advertising and Marketing Hall of Fame. In 1997 he was rated India’s 5th best CEO in a survey conducted by Business World. In 2007, he received a lifetime achievement award from the National Institute of Design and Business World.
Xerxes is passionate about urban issues in India. On loan from the Tata Group, he was part of the New Bombay Project with Shirish B Patel and Charles Correa in the early 1970s. In the 1980s, he also served on the National Commission on Urbanisation constituted by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. Xerxes’ continued interest in urban affairs is seen in the newspaper articles authored by him and in his active involvement in urban issues pertaining to Bangalore.
Art and architecture, books, western classical music and dogs occupy his somewhat limited leisure hours.