Steering Satyam to safety

We round off our profiles of the members of the interim board of directors of Satyam Computer Services, the men appointed to take charge of a scam-hit and temporarily rudderless group, to steer it out of the fog and land it to safety. The first part was carried on Tuesday:

C Achuthan
C Achuthan was nominated as a director on the board of Satyam on January 11. A legal expert, he was responsible for all rule-compliance issues of the takeover process — all petitions, approvals, relaxations sought, etc. He was sending periodical reports to the Company Law Board and the ministry of corporate affairs. The company had a legal advisory firm, but Achuthan was the one from the Board ensuring these were all met, within the country and without.

He also serves as a director at the National Stock Exchange. And is former presiding officer of the Securities Appellate Tribunal, which hears appeals against orders passed by the market regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi). He was chief there for six years till 2003. During his tenure at SAT, he was credited with fine-tuning the Indian capital markets. He is responsible for laying Sebi’s basic rules, regulations and roles in its early days.

Tarun Das
Tarun Das, chief mentor, CII, was appointed to the Satyam board on January 15. With decades of experience in industry associations, he was the one who was networking with ministry, foreign customers, business contacts, etc to keep them all with Satyam during the uncertain ride. He was instrumental in bringing in the management consultancy firm, BCG, as management advisor to help the board restore the confidence of all stakeholders.

He has spent his entire career in industry associations, starting with the predecessor body of the CII in November 1963. He was the chief executive since April 1974, when AIEI (which later became the CII) was formed through a merger of two associations, till June 2004.

An honours graduate in economics and commerce from Calcutta University and Manchester University, UK, he is also non-executive chairman of Haldia Petrochemicals, non-executive director on boards of John Keells Holdings (Sri Lanka) and GIVE Foundation. He is also managing trustee of Indian Business Trust for HIV/AIDS and of the India Development Foundation.