Atul’s entrepreneurial initiatives have been driven by a simple vision – ‘To be world-class in India’. This has been the driving force behind Apex Auto with a manufacturing capacity to process over 40,000 tons of steel, per annum.  This vision is also visible in The Sonnet Hotels & Resorts which is a proud member of the ‘Preferred Hotels & Resorts Connect Collection’ (A global leader in the Hospitality Industry, having more than 650 hotels across the world under its umbrella of brands).

Apex has multiple manufacturing plants in India, equipped with the latest global technologies, that provide world-class fabrication and machining solutions to OEMs. What started in 1996 as a small team catering to one OEM, today, proudly counts Volvo, Indian Railways, ITM, TATA Steel, Schwing Stetter, Tata Hitachi, Terex, Tractors India Limited, Epiroc, BEML, Metso, Kobelco, and Putzmeister amongst its valued customers.

Atul’s growth strategy relies on capability building and technology improvements. Most the team, that joined at start-up, hold key senior positions at Apex today. Each plant runs as an independent unit with minimal intervention. The Apex team is able to adapt and match stringent OEM procedures which is smoothly managed by OEM-wise dedicated teams such that there is no conflict.

Upgrading manufacturing facilities has been a keystone to success and Atul is always a step ahead with investing in the latest equipment and technologies to continuously upgrade manufacturing excellence.

Apex is now diversifying into high performing verticals like Railways & Defence. As a progression, the next move, from fabrication to offering complete integration of products led to Atul’s investment in Arx Mining and Construction Equipment Private Limited.

Though he has had an illustrious career doing business over the years with a lot to be proud of, what gives Atul a sense of personal satisfaction and pride is the fact that he started out on his own, with very small beginnings and has successfully created businesses that employ over 2000 people today and contribute to taking the ‘Make in India’ initiative global.

Apart from Arx, Atul is also the founder and Managing Director of Apex Auto Limited and The Sonnet Hotels and Resorts Limited.

Atul holds an honours degree in Economics from Punjab University.  He lives in Jamshedpur with his family and is an avid golfer and huge movie buff.

A technocrat at heart, Amarnath has over 32 years of extensive industry and international experience through a wide range of leadership roles in Product Design & Engineering, IT, Business Development, Sales and Marketing.  From Dantal and Walvoil, leading manufacturers of hydraulic components to LeeBoy, an OEM manufacturing construction equipment, Amarnath has been on both sides of the table (as a vendor and a buyer), thus gaining a clear perspective on pricing, quality and support levels with different key suppliers. This has placed him in a unique position of possessing good understanding of expectations on both sides and excellent negotiation skills through first-hand experience.

Amarnath’s experience has been evenly distributed between product engineering and technical sales. His experience in engineering has been in in two broad areas. The first area being full vehicle product engineering for the mining and defence sectors, which comprised drills, launching platforms and bridge layers. The other area was application engineering and sales of aggregates - primarily drivelines and control systems - from Walvoil, Casappa, Danfoss, Dana Spicer and Kawasaki to major OEMs around the globe.

Amarnath started his career at Sparr Equipment Limited which designed and manufactured track-mounted and truck-mounted drilling machines for water, coal and exploration. He joined as a design engineer and worked across Planning, Purchase and Production departments and was, eventually, promoted to Senior Manager - Operations.

In 1997, he joined Dantal Hydraulics, Delhi and headed Engineering, Quality and the systems integration division at their new facility in Gurgaon, where designed and manufactured a host of projects for defence applications. He started a defence systems plant for Dantal in 2000 and was General Manager, Operations.

In 2003, Amarnath joined Walvoil Spa Italy and was Area Manager for India and the Middle East. After doubling Walvoil’s turnover in the region over a period of one year, in 2005 he was appointed Managing Director of Walvoil Fluid Power India Pvt Ltd. Amarnath aggressively pursued new customers in India and abroad and successfully led the company’s localization programme. In 2010, Walvoil’s turnover reached 10 million euros, with around 35% being exported to major customers in advanced markets.

Amarnath joined Leeboy India Construction Equipment Private Limited as VP-Product Engineering in 2010 and was promoted as President & Director in 2015. He was responsible for the development of a range of motor graders, backhoe loaders and an excavator and led expansion of the brand into markets in Africa, CIS, Middle-east and Southeast Asia. Products manufactured in the Indian plant were successfully exported to over 15 countries. In a short span of 3 years since incorporation, the brand was second only to Caterpillar in the sales of motor graders in India despite the presence of several major global players.

This breadth of experience and expertise led him to start Arx Mining and Construction Equipment Private Limited, a greenfield start-up, to manufacture a range of niche and premium-build equipment with a clear focus on fully autonomous machines for advanced markets and conventional ones for the emerging markets.

Amarnath has been actively involved with CII (Confederate of Indian Industries). He has spoken on behalf of the Industries’ Ministry for the Make in India initiative at Johannesburg during the Bauma 2015, at Bangalore for ‘Invest Karnataka’ in 2017. He also represented CII and the Indian Construction Equipment Manufacturers Association at the 2nd Equipment World Congress in Istanbul. He has been part of the steering council of CEOs for EXCON-2015, 2017 & ,2019 & 2022, the largest construction equipment exhibition in South Asia organized by CII.

Amarnath holds a Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Calicut. He lives in Bangalore with his family and is an avid tennis player.