Founder of the company
PROF. M.K.A. Hameed
“Hope is both the earliest and the most indispensable virtue inherent in the state of being alive.
If life is to be sustained hope must remain, even where confidence is wounded, trust impaired.” This was perhaps, a dictum the professor in question fervently practiced. Born in the year 1929, the third son of a celebrated Travancore trader was unarguably a man larger than life. Losing his father at an early age and at the wake of a slowdown in the family trading, he had to striveto complete his formal education.
He worked hard to secure a seat at the Madras University at a time when very few from Kerala made it for a professional degree course. It is from here that he graduated as a chemical engineer. Kerala, an agricultural state by and large was at this time at the threshold of an industrial revolution. FACT was launched at Udhyogamandal, Kochi. The professor took his first assignment here. During his tenure here he received a marriage proposal. Little did he know how much his life was to change.
If life is to be sustained hope must remain, even where confidence is wounded, trust impaired.” This was perhaps, a dictum the professor in question fervently practiced. Born in the year 1929, the third son of a celebrated Travancore trader was unarguably a man larger than life. Losing his father at an early age and at the wake of a slowdown in the family trading, he had to striveto complete his formal education. He worked hard to secure a seat at the Madras University at a time when very few from Kerala made it for a professional degree course. It is from here that he graduated as a chemical engineer. Kerala, an agricultural state by and large was at this time at the threshold of an industrial revolution. FACT was launched at Udhyogamandal, Kochi. The professor took his first assignment here. During his tenure here he received a marriage proposal. Little did he know how much his life was to change.
Legendary cashew king, Thangal Kunju Musliar (TKM) sought the young Engineer’s consent for his daughter. It was after this that he was given another offer - to build TKM’s Engineering College. Taking to it like fish to water, he organised a team to build what is perhaps Kerala’s greatest monument to technical education. He was made the vice principal. After his stint as vice principal, the professor went abroad to do his masters - University of Mississippi. He returned to take over as the principal of TKM engineering college. Quick to discern between the policies of the management and the students, he soon won the adulation of both. Today, the institution acknowledges his principles with a national level technical symposium- MEXSYM. Having made a profound and lasting impact on his students and co staff, Professor bid adieu to the field of education and relocated to his home town. With elections around the corner, the town was rife with political tension. He was made to contest as an independent candidate backed by the Marxist party and thus carved a place in the political history of Kerala. Along with the then Chief Minister EMS Namboodiripad they set up Kerala’s very first planning board for which the professor served as the vice chairman. The collapse of the Marxist Government in the late seventies and his exit from the political arena, brought about the next turning point in his life, his truest calling perhaps -entrepreneurship. To date no one really knows why he made this career switch, although various reasons are cited. He chose to manufacture PVC pipes. A product, the markets of Kerala barely knew. He broke through a traditional market which catered only GI pipes. The man noted for his humbleness and patience, thus set new standards in the horizons of business acumen.