Aryaman Vikram Birla is set to take the helm as the new chairman of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru following a consortium’s acquisition of the team for Rs 16,660 crore. The consortium, led by the Aditya Birla Group and Times Internet Limited, includes Bolt Ventures and Blackstone’s perpetual private equity strategy. RCB, an original IPL franchise formed in 2008, has been acquired by this group.
Aryaman, the son of Aditya Birla Group’s chairperson Kumar Mangalam Birla, has a cricketing background having played for Madhya Pradesh in domestic cricket. He started his cricket journey by enrolling for district trials in Madhya Pradesh in 2014 and later played in England under former cricketer Paul Weekes.
Having captained the MP U23 team and played nine first-class matches for Madhya Pradesh, Aryaman scored 414 runs, including a century at the Eden Gardens. Despite being bought by Rajasthan Royals in the IPL 2018 auction, he didn’t feature in any matches and eventually took a break from cricket due to anxiety-related issues.
Aryaman, who holds an MBA from Harvard Business School, has been actively involved in various businesses of the Aditya Birla Group. He currently serves on the boards of key Group companies and is the founder of Aditya Birla New Age Hospitality and Aditya Birla Ventures, focusing on high-growth start-ups.
