For a man, who turned around the fortunes of Toyota Kirloskar as its CEO, it was not surprising that the Kirloskar Group appointed him Deputy Managing Director of Toyota Kirloskar Motor (TKM), when the Indian firm joined hands with the Japanese automobile major Toyota Industries Corporation for an automobile venture in the country. K K Swamy has speed at work, yet not compromising in quality and efficiency. He has planning for each move, and most all these end up paying huge dividends. A chartered accountant by training, Swamy completely overhauled the systems and procedures of the loss making Mysore Kirloskar, to generate profits in the very first year since the company was subjected to refurbishing.

This experience stood him in good stead for further challenges at Toyota Kirloskar Motor. when Toyota decided to bring in a decade-and-half-old model (Kijang) to India in the form of Qualis, the core team at TKM was sure of what they were doing. It was just Toyota's philosophy of minimising the initial risk, before taking on the competition head on. At this point, K K Swamy's understanding of the Indian market scenario only proved to be an asset for the company. Swamy is the youngest of seven children born to C V Krishnaswamy, an ICS officer.

Two of his brothers and sisters are doctorates: brothers are in engineering and the sisters did economics and child psychology. Although his family wanted him to study medicine, Swamy pursued BSc and after graduating with a first class, enrolled himself into the Chartered Accountancy course. A 17 th position in the CA Intermediate exams and two years later in 1978, K K Swamy cleared the CA finals. Thereafter, Swamy joined the Karnataka State Industries Department as an advisor. He then moved on to Hindustan Machine Tools as an accounts officer. Three years down the road he joined Hyderabad Allwyn as the deputy finance manager.

It is here that he got his initiation into the automobile world. He was in-charge of project financing for the Allwyn Nissan light commercial vehicle. In 1986, he moved back to Mysore to take charge as the finance manager. Seven years from then, Swamy was made vice-president (finance) looking at new business developments and projects. Later, he was offered the post of CEO at Mysore Kirloskar and then moved to TKM. Swamy is married to Indu, who he met at college. They have two daughters - Yasholakshmi and Vijayalakshmi. An extrovert and passionate follower of Indian traditions, Swamy loves reading philosophical books in his spare time. His hobbies include Piano, golf and tennis. He speaks Kannada, Telugu, Hindi and English and has a working knowledge of Japanese.