S. Bharathan is Director - Refineries at Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited. He is a Post Graduate in Chemical Engineering with a distinguished career of more than three decades at HPCL, having held key positions across refineries, corporate functions and R&D. He has contributed significantly to operational excellence and technology advancement.

In addition to his role at HPCL, he serves on the Boards of Hindustan-Mittal Energy Limited (HMEL), Mangalore Refinery & Petrochemicals Limited (MRPL), HPCL Rajasthan Refinery Limited (HRRL), HPCL Renewable and Green Energy Limited (HPRGE) and Ratnagiri Refinery & Petrochemicals Limited (RRPCL), and chairs the Boards of Hindustan Biofuels Limited (HBL) and Prize Petroleum Company Limited (PPCL).

Under his leadership, HPCL’s refineries have been expanded and modernised, with the benefits of this is being realised in terms of higher throughput, improved energy efficiency, enhanced product flexibility. His areas of interest include Smart Refining and Digital Transformation, process intensification, R&D technology commercialization, and emerging energy technologies. He is driving Digital Acceleration, Innovation, Knowledge Management Systems and Decarbonisation efforts across HPCL’s refineries and R&D. HPCL has also significantly diversified its’ crude basket during the recent period and cost efficiency is a special focus area.

He has been part of several important committees such as the Energy Transition Advisory Committee, Enhancing Petrochemicals Production, Indigenization of Catalyst Manufacturing and Policy for Synthetic Fuels. He has also served as Co-Chair of the Stakeholders Group on Advanced Biofuels (SGAB) under Activity 42 of the EU–India Clean Energy and Climate Partnership Work Programme.

Some of the Awards & Recognitions include CSIR-IICT–Avon Padmashri Dr. G. S. Sidhu CHEMCON Distinguished Speaker Award (2023), Hikal’s CHEMCON Distinguished Speaker Award, CHEMCON (2024), Titan – Refining Innovation Award, Transform HSE Conference (2024), Leadership Excellence Award – Refining Technology, 9th Global Refining & Petrochemical Congress (2025).