S K Roy to be new LIC chairman

Thomas Mathew T was appointed as interim chairman of LIC on May 31, 2013 after D K Mehrotra retired from his post

The government has decided to appoint S K Roy the new chairman of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC).

"We have decided on S K Roy as the new LIC Chairman," said financial services secretary Rajiv Takru to Business Standard.

Roy was appointed as the managing director of LIC on May 31. Thomas Mathew T was appointed interim chairman on May 31 after D K Mehrotra retired. It is not clear when Roy will take charge formally.

The government had interviewed five candidates for the post of the chairman, including managing director Sushobhan Sarkar, LIC Housing Finance MD & CEO V K Sharma, and three executive directors, S B Mainak, Roy and Usha Sangwan.  

Roy joined LIC in 1981 as a direct recruit officer of the 11th Batch. He has served the Corporation in prominent positions like area manager, LIC HFL, secretary (legal), chief (SBU-estate), regional manager (P&IR) and executive director (marketing /bancassurance & alternate channels).

He was zonal manager of the north central zone from 2009 to 2011 and from 2011 to 2013, he was in charge of the Eastern Zone, one of the premier Zones of the Corporation. He had been recently posted as head of the international operations before taking over as managing director.

LIC is the country's largest life insurer with 83 per cent market share in terms of number of policies and 71 per cent in terms of premiums. LIC collected new business premiums of Rs 76,246 crore for the financial year 2012-13.