BS People: Vijay Kumar Sharma

Playing fire-fighter

India’s biggest life insurer and financial institution has turned to its ‘turnaround man’ to restore credibility to prime subsidiary LIC Housing Finance (LICHF). Vijay Kumar Sharma, 52, formally took over as its CEO on Wednesday. Sharma comes from Chennai, where over the past one year he turned LIC’s south zone into the best performer after a 20-month slowdown.

Sharma considers the LICHF posting “an opportunity and a challenge’’ at the present juncture. That’s an understatement as it is passing through perhaps one of the worst periods in its history, after former CEO R R Nair was arrested last week by the Central Bureau of Investigation on charges of accepting a Rs 45-lakh bribe to facilitate the loan approvals of a few companies that were clients of Money Matters Financial Services.

“I am thankful to the board and that will be justified,’’ says the six-foot-tall Sharma, when asked whether he plays the role of in-house fire-fighter. Sharma plans meetings with investors, analysts and the media over the next few days to restore confidence.

A post-graduate in science from Patna University, Sharma joined LIC in 1981 as a direct recruit officer and was elevated as executive director in 2007. After arriving in Mumbai on Monday, Sharma went to parent Life Insurance Corporation of India’s office.

And what did the top brass tell him? “They are absolutely confident,” he said. “Crisil, too, has reposed confidence in LICHF. We must have faith,” says Sharma, the puja tilak on his forehead still bright as he locates his car in the evening rush-hour crowd at Flora Fountain.