IFEAT Founder’s Award October 11, 2016

Mr Sant Sanganeria

We are proud to be writing this special post to celebrate our own Chairman’s achievement in receiving the IFEAT Founder’s Award at this year’s annual conference in Dubai.

IFEAT established the Founder’s Award a few years ago to honour the contributions made by a person to both IFEAT and the Industry, with the award this year being presented to Mr Sant Sanganeria.

Unfortunately due to family illness, Sant Sanganeria was unable to collect the award himself on the night so instead his son, Ravi Sanganeria proudly received the award on behalf of his father.

Mr. Sanganeria has been intimately involved with IFEAT since the early years. He was a Founder Member and attended the first IFEAT Conference in Bangalore in 1979. Since then he has attended almost all IFEAT Conferences, often along with his wife of over 50 years, Asha, and later with his son, Ravi.

For many years, from 1985 until 2004 he was a member of IFEAT’s Executive Committee holding several positions. From 1989 to 1992 he was Vice-Chairman and from 1992 until 1995 he was Executive Committee Chairman. During this time he introduced some major changes to IFEAT, including establishing a new committee structure.

Mr. Sanganeria was born in Calcutta in 1944 and attended the Hindi High School and then graduated from St. Xavier’s College, Calcutta. He came to New Delhi in 1970 with the sole vision of establishing an organisation founded on values, inspired in part by the humanitarian and charitable works of his late father, who was also involved in importing perfumery compounds. Mr. Sanganeria’s childhood was spent watching his parents Mr. Prahalad Roy Sanganeria and Mrs. Radha Devi Sanganeria welcoming family members of various European and US F&F companies. These included W.J. Bush & Co. (UK), Polak’s Frutal Works (Holland); Naarden (Holland), Schimmel & Co. (USA, Chuit & Naef (Switzerland) and American Roland (USA). This laid the foundation for Mr. Sanganeria’s wide international connections and the birth of Ultra International.

Alongside his business activities, Mr. Sanganeria has been closely involved in charitable activities. The Sanganeria family house in Calcutta was donated to the recently beatified Mother Teresa of Calcutta and became one of her orphanages. Meanwhile, the Sanganeria Foundation for Health and Education, which works with some of the most vulnerable communities in India, has donated millions of dollars to various projects, particularly aimed at helping communities, children and women’s empowerment.

On receiving the award, Mr Sanganeria shared some thoughts, gratitude and best wishes for many friends and colleagues past and present with this acceptance speech, delivered by his son Ravi.