Cyberspace Picked Pros As Directors

The Arvind Johari-owned Cyberspace Ltd had packed its board with high-profile professionals. The prospectus of the company prepared by SBI Capital Markets in June 2000 for the Rs 100 crore private placement mentioned that the company had built a strong senior management team. Some of them were appointed on its board.

Pankaj Kumar, co-president and in-charge of Cyberspace's US and Canada operations, was earlier the wordwide chief executive of Birla Software & Consultancy Services. He had worked for 12 years with the A V Birla group. Sanjay Saxena, co-president responsible for business in UK, Europe, West Asia and Africa, was a part of the worldwide emerging markets team of IBM's software division for over five years before joining Cyberspace. In his last appointment, he was the software sales leader for over 120 countries in Central Europe, Russia, West Asia, Africa and South Africa.

Both Kumar and Saxena were on the Cyberspace board. Giving them company was B P Sinha, ex-director of the Life Insurance Corporation. Sinha had been executive director of the UK and Europe business of LIC. A British citizen, Sinha was now assisting Cyberspace in its UK operations. Also on the board was R K Pradhan, who worked with General Electric and Ford Motors in the past, assisting Cyberspace in its US operations.

On the eight-member board, the Johari family had three representatives - G N Johari, Arvind Johari and Anand Johari. Apart from the above four, there was Prabal Mall heading the northern region business of Cyberspace.

In addition, Sandeep Mathur, the head of international sales for Europe, West Asia and Africa, was the head of Lotus Development Corporation in India. The prospectus mentions that Mathur was reputedly the youngest head of a multinational arm in India. Devesh Chaturvedi, the head of the international solutions group for the region, had worked with the IT operations of US defence and was the country head of Lotus Consulting & Professional Services. Chaturvedi was a member of the Acheivers' Club of Lotus Development Corporation. However, both the UK-based ex-Lotus executives were not on the Cyberspace board.