Kolkata: Garden Reach Shipbuilders & Engineers Ltd. (GRSE) has announced that Captain P. Sunilkumar, IN (Retd.), currently serving as Chief General Manager of the Fitting Out Unit, has assumed charge as Director (Corporate Planning & Personnel) of the company on July 14, 2025.
Prior to this, as Chief General Manager, he was the Unit i/c and Occupier of the Fitting Out Unit of GRSE, a production unit undertaking outfitting of all the three P17A ships and 01 Survey Vessel with a workforce of over 2000 personnel.
Capt Sunilkumar Panangadan, IN (Retd) joined GRSE in September 2016 after completing nearly 22 years of ‘Commissioned Service’ in the the Indian Navy. He started his career in GRSE as Addl General Manager (Materials). He was responsible for complete Supply Chain Management of the Rs 20000+ crore 17A Project being executed at GRSE, Base& Depot Spares and Imports for all projects.
He took over as General Manager (Cost Estimation & Corporate Planning) on March 15, 2019. He has formulated GRSE’s Corporate Plans, Corporate Communication Plan and Business Strategy with focus on exports and was successful in bagging GRSE’s maiden export order on competitive basis. He was promoted to Chief General Manager in July 2022. During his tenure as head of Business Development at GRSE, the company has achieved collaboration with global Shipbuilders such as DAMEN, Netherlands and Naval Group, France.
The Company has also diversified into new products such as Tugs, Dredgers and Multi-Purpose Vessels and entered new global markets. He also pioneered the setup of the ‘Commercial Shipbuilding’ department at GRSE. The order book has seen a growth of over Rs 10000 crore and export orders worth more than Rs 400 crore. Simultaneously, as Head of Corporate Planning, he developed GRSE’s Vision 2030 document with a Vision to become “Navratna” Company and has successfully spearheaded the Schedule ‘A’ re-categorisation of GRSE.
He has held various important operational and repair/maintenance appointments in the Navy whilst heading the Engineering Department onboard Naval Warships and serving in Naval Dockyard.
He is an alumnus of the ‘Naval College of Engineering’ and holds a BTech (Mechanical) degree from JNU, New Delhi. He also holds Masters’ degrees in ‘Systems and Controls Engineering’ from IITB, Mumbai and ‘Defence & Strategic Studies’ (64th DSSC) from Madras University.
He is a qualified Project Management Professional (PMP®), a Certified International Supply Chain Professional (CISCP) and holds Diplomas’ in SCM and HRM. His interests include ‘Personal Finance’ (has attained level 3 in CFP®) and reading on ‘Strategy’, ‘Motivation’ and allied subjects.
