About Umashankar
Umashankar Triplicane Dwarakanathan
Investment Promotion & Energy-Sector Leader · Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Chemical Engineer (IIT Madras, Dual Degree) and MBA (ESMT Berlin) with 10+ years across LNG / oil & gas engineering, foreign direct investment (FDI) promotion, and business transformation. Delivered front-end design and cost engineering on a ∼USD 7 billion LNG project at Shell, then supported a USD 6 billion+ investment pipeline at Invest India as Senior Manager for the Oil & Gas sector, and drove state-level investment strategy for MPIDC at GITA. Combines deep technical credibility with B2G/B2B stakeholder engagement, policy advocacy, and cross-border deal structuring (JV / BOOT / BOT).
Career highlights: ∼USD 7 billion LNG train front-end design at Shell (SEIC Sakhalin Energy Brownfield expansion, 2014–2018 project scope; USD 40M savings, 25% CO₂ cut); managed a USD 6 billion+ oil & gas pipeline at Invest India across five states; established a ∼USD 400 million India technology hub (550+ hires). A full-circle moment: in 2013, as a Mondelēz (Cadbury) supply chain intern, he designed a 3,600-TPA chocolate production line in Mumbai — and over a decade later, in 2025, he helped ground a ₹289 crore investment (per GITA/MPIDC, 2025) for a new chocolate production facility in Ujjain.
Professional Experience
Independent Consultant — Strategy & Analytics · Self-employed
2026 – Present, Chennai
- Advises energy and infrastructure clients on transactions, approvals and strategy — compiling documentation that secured a client’s project loan, preparing pitch decks for a retail-network fundraise, and delivering FDI research, sector strategy, financial modelling and M&A analysis.
- Leads marketing, sourcing and export development for Sri Tara Global Traders (health & wellness products — malts, instant mixes, moringa oil).
Associate Director · Global Investment & Trade Advisors (GITA)
Jul 2025 – Dec 2025, Bhopal
- Drove investment strategy for MPIDC, securing opportunities in 13 focus sectors for the state; expanded the pipeline in food processing and textiles through targeted investor outreach.
- Championed policy advocacy on CNG tax reduction, marine & fisheries policy to increase farmer incomes from fisheries, and inclusion of renewable-energy manufacturing (e.g. hydrogen electrolyzers) in incentive frameworks.
- Grounded an investment of ₹289 crore for a chocolate production facility in Ujjain.
Senior Manager — Investment Promotion (Oil & Gas) · Invest India
Aug 2022 – Jun 2025, Delhi
- Managed an oil & gas investment pipeline exceeding USD 6 billion across five states (Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Assam) as a single-window interface.
- Led a global policy-benchmarking study across 33 sectors, coordinating team SPOCs and a 3-person unit to deliver a collated intelligence package to the CEO.
- Developed analysis of India’s oil & gas import and refining landscape that informed a Ministry marine-development fund supporting the Indian shipbuilding industry.
- Supported decision makers on a CBG project JV worth USD 400 million and a USD 110 million JV partnership for an ethanol distillery.
- Built new verticals in lubricant recycling, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and carbon capture; advocated on ethanol blending, compressed biogas, LNG and upstream oil & gas; drove FDI outreach across Europe and the USA.
Manager — Business Transformation · Synergy Marine Group
Jul 2021 – Apr 2022, Chennai
- Led digitalisation across fleet operations — seafarer onboarding workflows and inventory tooling (BambooHR), transitioning legacy Excel-based systems to modern platforms.
- Investigated long-term shipping decarbonisation pathways spanning batteries, wind assistance, biofuels and hydrogen-based fuels, including gas-fired turbine commercialisation using LNG for shipping.
Interim & Consulting Roles — Germany & India
Feb 2020 – Jun 2021
- Director of Operations, Segfault Systems (Chennai, May–Jun 2021): established payroll, onboarding and integrated company accounts (Zoho, Vakilsearch) for a functional-programming-language startup.
- Project Manager, Infarm GmbH (Berlin, Nov 2020–Jan 2021): delivered project plans, risk metrics and SOPs for vertical-farming installations (Zoho, Jira, Confluence).
- Associate Consultant — IT Transformation, Ritzenhöfer & Company (Düsseldorf, Feb–Jun 2020): established a ∼USD 400 million India technology hub for a pan-European insurer (BOOT/JV evaluation), recruiting 550+ employees on time and budget.
Process Engineer → Category Analyst · Shell India Markets Pvt. Ltd.
Aug 2014 – Mar 2018, Bengaluru
- Delivered basis-of-design, scope and cost engineering for the SEIC (Sakhalin Energy) Brownfield expansion in Russia — a third 4.8 MTPA LNG train, CAPEX ∼USD 7 billion.
- Harmonised Shell DEPs with Russian Federation Standards, delivering savings of up to USD 40 million; the approach became a company-wide anti-gold-plating policy.
- Reduced LNG-plant CO₂ footprint by 25% to 0.15 t-CO₂/t-LNG via combined-cycle and all-electric driver options.
- Ran concept design, equipment sizing and process modelling for LNG facilities across Russia, Australia, India and Brunei.
- As Category Analyst (Jul 2017 – Mar 2018): achieved ∼USD 150k annual cost savings per new UK fuel station using total-cost-of-ownership models, and cultivated solar/wind supplier partnerships supporting a 10 MW renewable project; sourced 100+ potential suppliers and issued RFIs for barges and vessels in Kazakhstan from the Baltic region, China, and South Korea.
Education
MBA, General Management · ESMT Berlin
Jan 2019 – Dec 2019, Berlin, Germany · Digital-strategy internship at Gewobag (Berlin, Sep–Nov 2019): led a 4-person team on a tenant-engagement product strategy, identifying ∼USD 15 million in new business opportunities through token economics, e-mobility, gamification and parcel-hub concepts.
Dual Degree (B.Tech + M.Tech), Chemical Engineering · IIT Madras
Aug 2009 – May 2014 · Master’s thesis on Chemical-Mechanical Polishing/STI published in Microelectronic Engineering (Vol. 114, 2014); granted patent IN 426681.
Schooling · DAV Boys Senior Secondary School, Gopalapuram
Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Skills & Tools
FDI & Investment PromotionLNG / Oil & Gas Process EngineeringPPP / BOOT / BOT / JV StructuringCost Engineering & TCO ModellingPolicy AdvocacyEnergy Transition & DecarbonizationAspen / HYSYS / UniSimPythonRPower BIJiraZoho CRMDynamics 365
Languages
EnglishTamilHindiTeluguKannadaSanskritGerman (A1)
AI Disclosure: This page was compiled with AI assistance (Claude), drawing on the author's own professional record. AI-generated text can occasionally misstate figures or “hallucinate” details even when working from real source material — readers should verify any figure that matters to a decision against the cited primary source.
All information referenced on this site is drawn from public sources; the analysis and views expressed are personal opinions.