Satyam board meets Tuesday, may name new CEO
By IANSSunday, January 25, 2009
HYDERABAD - The government-appointed directors of embattled Satyam Computer Services will meet here Tuesday to pick a new chief executive officer (CEO) and finalise funding arrangements to ensure the fraud-hit company’s smooth operations in the next two months.
The six directors, making up the new board, said last Friday that they had shortlisted three candidates for the posts of CEO and chief financial office (CFO) and they will finalise the names this week.
They also said that funding arrangements till March end would be tied up before Jan 28.
At the end of the last meeting, the directors decided to meet for two days, Jan 26 and Jan 27. However, since Jan 26 is Republic Day, they decided to meet only for a day Jan 27.
The members of the board are Housing Development and Finance Corp (HDFC) chairman Deepak Parekh, former president of software industry body Nasscom Kiran Karnik, former Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) member C. Achuthan, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) mentor Tarun Das, former head of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India T.N. Manoharan, and Life Insurance Corp nominee S.B. Mainak.
The new CEO ‘will be uniquely qualified to lead the company during this period of transition and will be a leader of global standing and recognition’, the directors said after the last meeting.
To meet operational expenses, including salaries and vendor payments, the board said: ‘Additional funding arrangements are in the final stages of being concluded.’
‘This is expected to be formally announced before Wednesday, Jan 28, and will address the company’s operational needs till end of March 2009,’ Parekh said.
The board does not have a chairperson. The six directors have left that decision to the government and members are presiding over the meeting by rotation till a chairperson is appointed.
The last meeting, held over two days, was chaired by Das.
Tuesday’s meeting will be the fourth meeting of the new board in 15 days. The first meeting took place Jan 12, a day after the government appointed Parekh, Karnik and Achuthan as the new directors, sacking the previous Satyam board following disgraced founder B. Ramalinga Raju’s confession of Rs. 70 billion (Rs. 7,000 crore) fraud.
Since Jan 7, the day Raju confessed to the fraud, Satyam, India’s fourth largest software exporter, has been without a CEO. The company’s CFO Vadlamani Srinivas also quit Jan 8.
Ramalinga Raju, his brother B. Rama Raju who was Satyam’s managing director, and Srinivas are under arrest and lodged in Chanchalaguda jail here. Their bail appeal will be heard by a Hyderabad court Jan 28. The three were sent to judicial custody till Jan 31.
