Susim Mukul Datta, widely regarded as one of India’s most distinguished corporate leaders, died on Saturday morning in Mumbai at the age of 89.

Datta began his career on the shop floor of Hindustan Unilever, then Hindustan Lever, in 1956, rising through the ranks over more than three decades to become chairman in 1990. He is survived by his wife, two sons, a daughter, and their families.

Born in Medinipur in Bengal, Datta was a brilliant student who stood first in his chemistry honours batch from Presidency College and also in Masters, from Rajabazar
Science College.

He joined HLL just after it was formed with the merger of three entities viz. Hindustan Vanaspati, Lever Brothers and United Traders Limited. During his tenure at HLL, Datta worked in various divisions of the company and succeeded Ashok Ganguly as the chairman of HLL at a time when Manmohan Singh was about to liberalise the economy.

As chairman, Datta led HLL through major consolidations, merging tea and coffee companies Brooke Bond and Lipton and acquiring Tata Oil Mills Company, earning him the moniker of ‘merger magician.’

His calm consensus-building and strategic clarity earned him immense respect across the organization.

Sought after by top companies soon after retiring from HLL, he served as chairman of several marquee companies such as Philips India Ltd, Castrol India Ltd, BOC and Peerless General Finance & Investment.

Corporate chieftain Aniruddha Lahiri, who worked with Datta in HLL for 16 years, described him as his ‘guru’.

“Datta recruited me in HLL and I had the good fortune to work with him. He was an intellectual giant and a humble and spiritual man,” he said.

He recalled many instances of accompanying Datta to places having an association with Ramakrishna Paramhansa, Sarada Devi and Swami Vivekananda. “I remember having bhog with him at Belur Math,” Lahiri reminisced.

Sandip Ghose, MD of Birla Corporation, described Datta as the last of the Mohicans among technocrat chairmen of HLL.

“At a trainee induction in Mumbai, a young recruit asked him what is different about being a manager at HLL. He replied, ‘You will always get to carry your own brief case, never will you be asked to carry your boss or owner’s brief case’. Then, as clarification, he added, ‘That’s the true meaning of professionalism,’” Ghosh recalled.