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Gulf Petrochem on Wednesday announced that its board of directors has appointed Rakesh Mehra as Strategic Advisor.

Prior to joining the UAE-headquartered firm, Mehra held a number of executive director positions at Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd, where he headed the pipelines division, international trade department and corporate planning.

Mehra was also a board member at Bharat Matrix - a joint venture between Bharat Petroleum and Germany's Matrix Marine.

In his previous role, Mehra oversaw the import of roughly 28 million tonnes of crude oil for Bharat Petroleum's group of refineries. This also incuded the export of petroleum products, commodity hedging across international markets and independent shipping chartering.

In a statement, Gulf Petrochem said: "With over 35 years experience in the oil industry encompassing refinery operations, marketing, inbound and outbound logistics, biofuels, international trading and commodity risk management, Mehra will oversee Gulf Petrochem Group's strategic expansion plans while improving profitability along with the group's global brand."

Manan Goel, Group Director at Gulf Petrochem, remarked: "Rakesh Mehra brings with him a wealth of experience as witnessed by his accomplishments at Bharat Petroleum. His appointment is a strategic complement to our group, ensuring our global expansion plans and global reputation remain to the highest standards along with looking at ways to continue our development for us to realise our long-term objectives as a group."

Commenting on his appointment, Rakesh Mehra said: "I have witnessed the group's exponential growth from afar, and when the opportunity arose to join the group and develop the $2.5 billion business further, it was a challenge that I could not turn down. With a truly global presence across its businesss units consisting of bunkering, trading, refining, shipping and storage, the group is extremely well positioned to cope with the current market dynamics and prosper into the future."