Future mourns past as retail doyen Raghu Pillai dies

Raghu Pillai, president and chief executive officer of Kishore Biyani's Future Group, died of a heart attack early today. He was 54, and is survived by his wife, daughter and son.

Widely regarded as a pioneer of modern retail practices in India, Pillai joined the Future Group after quitting as director and chief executive (operations, strategy and business development) at Reliance Retail last October.

Being back to Future was like a homecoming for Pillai, who earlier headed Biyani's retail chain Pantaloon before joining RPG Enterprises' where he spearheaded the building of companies such as Food World Super Markets, Music World, Health & Glow, and Spencer Giant Hyper Markets.

A top Future Group official said, "Pillai's death is a great loss to the company. His loss is irreparable."