Sebi starts search for two EDs

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has started the process of identifying new executive directors (EDs).

“Interviews have been going on for the last two days. There are 19 candidates in the fray,” said two persons familiar with the development. While all chief general managers (CGMs) of Sebi are being interviewed, a few finance ministry officials and capital market participants are also in the list of probables.

The market regulator, in December 2009, had invited applications for vacancies at the ED level. While the careers section on Sebi’s website states there are two vacancies, it clarifies that Sebi reserves the right to “fill more posts or to not fill a post at all”. The last date for applying was January 15.

At present, Sebi has five EDs. The last time it inducted EDs was in June 2009, when JN Gupta and KN Vaidyanathan joined it. The other EDs are PK Nagpal, J Ranganayakulu and Usha Narayanan.

“There are 10 internal and 19 external candidates among the shortlisted probables,” said a person familiar with the development. “All CGMs have been called. The list of external candidates includes a few director-level officers from the finance ministry,” he added. The last time Sebi had invited applications, there were 64 applicants, of which 25 were shortlisted. The selection committee comprises chairman and two board members.

Another person privy to the development said there was a “lot of excitement within Sebi circles” as one or both EDs could be “selected from within the organisation”.

“The other CGMs will report to the selected ones,” said this person who did not want to be named.

The industry has been abuzz with names of various people believed to have been interviewed by the selection committee. Among the finance ministry officials, names of Anand Mohan Bajaj and CKG Nair have been doing the rounds. Both Bajaj and Nair are directors in the finance ministry’s capital markets division. While Bajaj handles external markets, Nair looks after the primary market and regulatory establishments. An email query sent to both went unanswered.

Apart from ministry officials, the name of R Sundararaman of the National Stock Exchange (NSE) is also doing the rounds. Sundararaman is a senior vice-president at National Securities Clearing Corporation Ltd. While an NSE spokesperson had earlier denied such a move, repeated attempts to contact him on Thursday proved futile.

Sundararaman is not the only NSE official among the probables. TS Jagadharini is also believed to be in the fray, although she had resigned from the exchange recently. In her last assignment, she was a vice-president at NSE handling various verticals, including currency derivatives and equity F&O.

Jagadharini said such reports were “totally baseless”.

“I resigned after working with NSE for 16 years. I have only taken a sabbatical,” she added.

People working with some leading brokerages are believed to have made it to the final list. Current EDs Gupta and Vaidyanathan were both hired from the industry, although the list included government officials ready to come to Sebi on deputation. While Vaidyanathan was the CEO of Alchemy Capital Management, Gupta was Group CFO, Kazstroyservice Group of Companies.