Sixteen years and still going strong. Shareholders of Reliance Industries entrusted their hopes and approved giving Mukesh Ambani another five years as the chairman and Managing Director of the company. This decision was taken during the company’s 41st Annual General Meeting held in Mumbai recently. Ambani, 61, has been on the board of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) since 1977 and was elevated as Chairman of the company after the death of his father and group patriarch Dhirubhai Ambani in July 2002. Of the votes polled, 98.5 per cent were in favor of the resolution while 1.48 voted against it. According to the resolution, Ambani will be paid an annual salary of Rs.4.17 crore and Rs.59 lakh of perquisites and allowances. Retirement benefits are not included in the overall ceiling of remuneration. He will also be entitled to receive bonus based on net profits and “expenses incurred for travelling, boarding and lodging, including for spouse and attendant(s) during business trips and provision of car(s) for use on company’s business and communication expenses at residence shall be reimbursed at actuals and not considered as perquisites,” it said. Also, “the expenses, as may be borne by the company for providing security to Shri. Mukesh D Ambani and his family members shall not be considered as perquisites and accordingly, not to be included for the purpose of computation of the overall ceiling of remuneration,” the resolution, which was carried at the AGM, said.
Bandhan Bank, the newest private sector lender, announced that it has received RBI approval for the re-appointment of current MD and CEO, Chandra Shekhar Ghosh, for a three-year term. “RBI vide letter (July 4, 2018), has accorded its approval for the re-appointment of Chandra Shekhar Ghosh as the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the bank for a period of three years,” the bank said in a regulatory filing. The Kolkata-headquartered private sector lender commenced its banking operations on August 23, 2015, and it is the first bank to be set up in the eastern part of India since independence. Ghosh is the founder of the bank, and has 37 years of experience in the microfinance industry. The bank forayed into the stock market during 2017-18, raising Rs.4,473 crore through an initial public offer (IPO).
Gurgaon-based firm Zomato has brought on board former Make- My Trip executive Mohit Gupta as the CEO of its food delivery business and in the process has strengthened its senior management and leadership teams. Gupta, who was formerly COO - Online at the online travel portal, will be responsible for leading the growth and P&L (profit and loss) of Zomato’s food delivery business, a spokesperson for Zomato said. Gupta will report to Zomato’s Founder and CEO Deepinder Goyal. Food delivery has been one of the most crucial areas of growth for Zomato with the vertical contributing about 30% of the overall revenues as of FY18. Currently, Mohit, who was the co-founder of Runner, heads global business for Zomato’s food ordering and delivery platform and will be responsible for building the firm’s logistics stack within that business. Earlier, the firm brought on board former GE executive Sameer Maheshwary as its CFO. The company which has seen changes on the top deck of the firm is increasingly looking to strengthen its core teams and leadership to accelerate the growth of its business which saw the company hiring Rohithari Rajan to lead its global advertising P&L even as former global advertising sales head Gaurav Gupta moved up the ladder taking on the mantle of COO at the firm.
Srinivas PM has been elevated as the P&G India HR head for India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. The position was lying vacant since Sonali Roychowdhury moved base to Singapore. She is now Head, Supply Chain and HR for the Asia-Pacific region. Before taking up the new assignment, Srinivas was based out of Jakarta and was Business Organization Strategy Director at P&G Indonesia. He was based out of Jakarta for the last five years. Before moving to Jakarta, Srinivas was supply chain HR head for India. It was a strategic corporate HR role, wherein he led a team of 25 HR professionals who managed 470 managers, 2,000 P&G workforce and 3,000 contract workers across five sites. Srinivas has been with P&G for 18 years, in various capacities. He started as a management trainee in 2000 and climbed up the rungs. An electronic engineer from Nagpur University, Srinivas, who has an MBA degree from Symbiosis, dabbled in sales and marketing for seven months before switching over to HR. At P&G he worked out of several geographies outside India which includes Australia, Singapore and China. Srinivas will report to Madhusudhan Gopalan, MD, P&G India.
Facebook’s co-founder Mark Zuckerberg has now become the world’s third richest person. Zuckerberg has dethroned Warren Buffett to register the spot under his name. Zuckerberg now is trailing behind Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Microsoft’s Bill Gates. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Zuckerberg’s wealth expanded over soaring of around 2.4 per cent in Facebook’s share. Interestingly, this is the first time ever that the world’s top three richest men are from the world of technology. Zuckerberg, 34, is now worth $81.6 billion, about $373 million more than Buffett, the 87-year-old chairman and chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Earlier, on May 14, Mark Zuckerberg celebrated his 34th birthday. He became the youngest billionaire in the world at the age of 23 in 2008. He was ranked 785 on the World’s Billionaires list. He was approached by several companies with job offers (including AOL and Microsoft) before he even graduated from high school, but Zuckerberg turned them all down and decided to go to Harvard University. He eventually dropped out of Harvard University to devote himself full-time to Facebook. In July 2011, he became the most followed user on Google’s social network Google+, surpassing its cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
The board of ICICI Bank has appointed former IAS officer Girish Chandra Chaturvedi as its new non-executive chairman to succeed incumbent M K Sharma, as it sets about addressing issues related to allegations of quid pro quo, non-adherence to the code of conduct and conflict of interest involving its CEO and managing director, Chanda Kochhar. Chaturvedi, a 1977-batch officer who retired as petroleum secretary in year 2013, will succeed Sharma who retired recently. The move marks a significant change in one of India’s top private banks which, even before it converted decades ago from a development financial institution into a bank, had financial services professionals heading the board such as N. Vaghul and later K. V. Kamath. The appointment of an experienced former bureaucrat who has been on the boards of state-owned banks and worked in the banking and insurance division of the finance ministry is being viewed as a move to sort out governance issues and allay concerns of investors and regulators. The appointment is for a period of three years and is subject to RBI and shareholder approvals, the bank said in a stock exchange filing. “The board is extremely pleased with this development and believes that Chaturvedi will provide maturity and sagacity to the deliberations of the board. This would also ensure a seamless and smooth transition of leadership at the board and would address stakeholder concerns in this behalf,” a statement issued by the bank said.
Well-known senior in HR, Patnam Dwarakanath, comes on board as the non-executive chairman and nominee director of Horlicks, which functions under the global healthcare brand, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). “We would like to inform you that ‘Horlicks Limited’ has nominated Patnam Dwarakanath as nominee director and non-executive chairman of the company,” said a release issued by the company, while stating the exit of Zubair Ahmed, who stepped down as nominee director and non-executive chairman recently. In his forty years of association with GSK, Dwarakanath mentored several young professionals and nurtured the workforce with his rich experience across functions, in his four decades of experience in engineering, chemical, pharma and consumer goods industries, in the core functional areas of legal, employee relations, management development, leadership development and HR management. In 2006, he retired as director, human resource, GSK. He has been a non-executive director of the company since his retirement, and also a member of GSK’s international HR team. During his tenure, GSK was recognized as one of the top five best employers in India for people-related practices for several years. He has won numerous awards for his contribution to the field of human resources, which includes ‘Pathfinders Award’ by the National Human Resource Development Network, ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ by Asia’s Best Employer Brand Award, and ‘Chairman’s Award’ by the Max India Group.
It looks like the historic deal to merge its steelmaking business with Tata Steel did not go well with Thyssenkrupp’s chief executive Heinrich Hiesinger, with him putting in his papers days after the 200- year conglomerate signed the deal. Hiesinger took the reins of the company in 2011, with the promise of making major asset sales and cultural reforms to transform the group. The biggest move was to get out of steelmaking and focus instead on the manufacture and servicing of industrial goods, including elevators, submarines and vehicle components. He had come under heavy criticism, as shareholders expressed frustration with the pace of change. Cevian, the Swedish activist fund that has become the group’s second-largest shareholder, and Elliott, which has this year built up a small stake, both criticized the management for failing to improve margins in its core business and delivering poor shareholder returns. The merger with Tata had wide support among shareholders until the final stages, when it became clearer that Thyssenkrupp’s steel business was improving, creating a perceived value gap between it and Tata. When the merger was signed last week, labor unions unanimously supported the deal, but two members on the capital side of the supervisory board voted against it, and one abstained. In a release issued, Hiesinger defended his tenure as chief executive. “Today Thyssenkrupp is a completely different company regarding culture, values and performance,” he said. “The joint venture of our steel activities with Tata is the next significant step to turn Thyssenkrupp into a strong industrial company. We can be proud of what we achieved until now.”
Barnes & Noble’s CEO Demos Parneros paid for his wrong doings as this international bookstore chain fired him for unspecified violations of company policy. Parneros will not be paid severance and will be removed from the board immediately. The company has said that the board was advised by a law firm in the decision to fire Parneros. The company did not announce a reason for the firing. It specified that the CEO wasn’t asked to leave because of any disagreement about “financial reporting, policies or practices or any potential fraud relating thereto.” The company also reaffirmed its profit guidance for the current fiscal year, saying that it would begin looking for a new CEO. In the meantime, a leadership group, including the chief financial officer, will handle the CEO’s duties. Fifty-six-year old Parneros has been with the company as COO since 2016, after a career at Staples, the office supply chain. He became CEO in 2017. The company operates 630 stores in the US and has 23,000 employees. Barnes & Noble was one of the first traditional retailers to be hampered by digital competition, most notably from Amazon, and has struggled with declining foot traffic, shrinking sales and store closures. As CEO, Parneros brought in new executives and introduced several new initiatives intended to increase store traffic and sales, including a Barnes & Noble Book Club.
Jyotsna Parikh joins Triton Communications which was incorporated in 1991 by Ali Merchant and Munawar Syed, which has over 20 years of track record of enduring client relationships based on some great work for some great brands. Over the years, the creative fire-power of Triton has helped deliver several iconic campaigns for clients like Move, Aqua guard, Set-Wet, Fortune, NECC and a host of others. Commenting on the appointment, Ullas Chopra, NCD, Triton Communication said, “Triton has made some great wins in the recent past with Ambuja Cements and SAMCO. The work is being noticed and appreciated and we are building on the momentum with Jyotsna coming on board. She has the talent, the work and the maturity that I am sure will help us make even more of a creative impact going forward. We have big plans and she is a big part of them.” Ali Merchant, Managing Director, Triton Communications, went on to add, “We are really happy that Jyotsna has joined us. With her experience we are looking forward to some really great creative work that will make our clients’ brands even more famous.” Jyotsna moves from Oglivy, Mumbai. In a career spanning over 17 years, Jyotsna has spent all of it at Ogilvy, Mumbai, and has been responsible for some memorable campaigns on Star Plus, Castrol, Huggis and Home Centre among others. Her work on ‘Gurdeep Singh and Daughters’ for Star Plus and ‘Hathipaon mukt Bharat’ for the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has won several accolades. “Triton has a great mix of truly Indian brands and is all set to start a new chapter of creativity. It’s a fantastic opportunity to be at its helm and take it to the next level,” said Jyotsna on her new assignment.
Senior bureaucrat Saraswati Prasad has taken over the additional charge as chairman and managing director of steel PSU SAIL, according to the company sources. “Saraswati Prasad, Special Secretary and Financial Advisor, Ministry of Steel, has taken over the additional charge of the post of Chairman and MD of SAIL, according to a BSE filing. Prasad succeeds P K Singh who retired recently. “PESB (Public Enterprises Selection Board) recommended the following name (Anil Kumar Chaudhary) for the post of Chairman, Steel Authority of India Ltd,” according to the government headhunter. Chaudhary is the director, finance of the country’s largest steel-maker SAIL. Besides Chaudhary, other candidates who were interviewed by the public enterprises’ selection board were Moil Director Tanmaya Kumar Pattnaik, SAIL Executive Director Alok Sahay, SAIL Director (Commercial) Soma Mondal and Central Electronics Ltd Chairman and Managing Director Nalin Shinghal, PESB had said.
by Joe Williams
