Jugal Kishore Mohapatra new chairman at Shriram Finance in top-level rejig

A post graduate from Delhi School of Economics with a Masters in Economics from Boston University, he served in various key government positions in Odisha and at the Centre

Shriram Transport Finance Company (STFC), which changed its name to Shriram Finance (SFL), saw a top-level rejig after the restructuring of the group, with former Odisha cadre civil service officer Jugal Kishore Mohapatra, 66, being elected as its new chairman, effective Monday (December 5).

Mohapatra will replace S Lakshmninarayanan, who served as the Chairman of STFC for nearly nine years, and earlier as an independent director for four years. The company’s board has also cleared the appointment of 1981 batch Indian Revenue Service official Maya S Sinha as an independent director. In her near 30-year career in the government of India, she spent about 23 years in the income tax department.

Y S Chakravarti, who was a managing director and chief executive officer of erstwhile Shriram City Union Finance (SCUF), was named managing director and CEO of the new company effective December 5, subject to shareholders' approval. Umesh Revankar (currently vice chairman and managing director) was re-designated executive vice chairman of the company, starting December 5.

Last week, the firm said in a regulatory filing that it changed its name to Shriram Finance from STFC on November 30. Post merger, Shriram Finance became the largest retail-focused non-banking financial company. According tothe plan, Shriram Capital (SCL), the Shriram Group holding company, and SCUF were merged with STFC and the new entity was renamed Shriram Finance.

On November 23, the group announced that Shriram Financial Ventures (Chennai) (SFVPL), which was the holding company of Shriram Capital (SCL), will be the new group holding company. SFVPL is jointly owned by Shriram Ownership Trust (SOT) and the Sanlam Group of South Africa. It will help each investee company in the group to expand, while continuing to look for newer business opportunities in financial services, the company said. It added that the primary focus would be to drive growth using both technology and finance.

The firm's new chairman Mohapatra is a post graduate from Delhi School of Economics. He joined the Odisha Cadre of IAS in 1979. Later, he obtained a Masters Degree in Economics from Boston University, US. He served as a secretary in the department of fertilisers and rural development at the Centre in 2014-16. He was secretary to the Chief Minister, Odisha, Principal Secretary Finance and Chief Secretary in the Government of Odisha. He was also an independent director on the boards of Nabard Financial Services Ltd and NHPC Ltd. Mohapatra is serving on the Board of Urban Mass Transit Company as an Independent Director and is a nominee director of The Foundation for Development of Rural Value Chains. At present, he is serving IIBX as a public interest director.