Spotlight on Cairn India's top men

A former rugby player of the Scotland international team, 56-year-old Bill Gammell is at the helm of affairs as the chairman of Cairn India. Gammell brings with him over 25 years of experience in the oil and gas industry.

Though it is not clear whether Gammell will move out, a Cairn India spokesperson said, "Gammell will remain chairman. The management will remain the same." Gammell, too, said at a conference call that the non-executive management structure will not change. He is a non-executive director on the Cairn India board.

The most important person in the company, on whom speculation is rife, is the managing director and chief executive officer, Rahul Dhir. With Vedanta Resources Plc making its maiden foray into the oil and gas business through acquiring a controlling stake in Cairn India, the management maintained that the board under Dhir will continue to stay put, as of now. In addition to oil in Rajasthan, Gammell’s other discovery in India was Dhir, a 44-year-old investment banker.

An engineering graduate from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and a management graduate from Wharton Business School, Pennsylvania, he began his career as an oil and gas reservoir engineer before moving to investment banking at SBC Warburg, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch. Dhir joined the company ahead of its over Rs 8,000-crore initial public offering, in 2006.

Agarwal assured that nothing was changing in the company. “We have expertise to give vision, to make a business plan. We will support them fully. They will work as a standalone company and any resource or expertise that they need, we will support them with that,” he said.