She has been offered the top job at Axis Bank, which caused current chairman and CEO JP Nayak to put in his papers after being at the helm for nine years. Nayak was against her appointment, and wanted an insider to take over the top job, but he was overruled by the Board 8:1. Sharma beat two others shortlisted by the board, MM Agarwal and Hemant Kaul.

Shikha Sharma probably took this decision once Chanda Kochhar got the top job at ICICI Bank. On the other hand, Nayak, who has steered Axis Bank through troubled waters, still had time on his hands as his term gets over only on July 31. A couple of years ago, the RBI had asked Axis Bank to separate the posts of chairman and managing director, but Nayak didn’t agree, and as a compromise, the post of managing director was abolished and Nayak became chairman and wholetime director.

Shikha Sharma’s replacement at ICICI Prudential Life Insurance is likely to be V Vaidyanathan, currently Executive Director at ICICI Bank.

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• Chanda Kochhar to be next ICICI Bank CEO and MD
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• HDFC Bank is a khadoos bank
• ICICI Bank and Singapore Airlines launch co-branded credit card
• Chandrasekaran to replace Ramadorai at TCS

The names did come somewhat as a surprise, though - Kiran Karnik has been appointed Chairman, and A.S Murty was named the company’s CEO. Incidentally, Karnik is one of the six member team that is investigating the fraud at the company. Murty has been with Satyam for 16 years. The board also mandated Goldman Sachs and Avendus to find a strategic bidder for the company.

There was a bit of concern, especially as Karnik is on the board of other companies, such as IDG and EXL, the latter causing some debate regarding a potential conflict of interest. Likewise, Murty sold 40,000 shares in two transactions on December 12 and 16 for Rs.90 lakh raising serious doubts about insider trading. Five other executives sold shares worth Rs.2.5 crore from October 1 to December 16.

However, Minister for Corporate Affairs PC Gupta said he found nothing wrong with that !

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This is in line with the Tata group’s retirement policy. Ramadorai, who turns 65 in October, will relinquish executive power but continue to be associated with TCS in a non-executive capacity and will be redesignated as vice-chairman (currently a non-existent post) for the next 10 years.

His successor, Chandrasekaran, was appointed as COO and was elevated to the position of executive director on the company’s board around 16 months ago.

Related Posts:

• Axis Bank – Shikha Sharma takes over as Nayak moves out
• Chanda Kochhar to be next ICICI Bank CEO and MD
• Tata name to adorn Ferrari F1 cars
• Roddam leaves Satyam, Jerry Rao quits MphasiS board
• Kalpana Morparia leaves ICICI Bank, joins JP Morgan

She will take over from K.V Kamath, one of the giants of the banking industry, who will become the non-executive Chairman, while another doyen, N.Vaghul, the present non-executive Chairman, will retire from the board on April 30, 2009.

For Kochhar, this has been a meteoric rise – from management trainee in 1984 to CEO & MD in 2008. From 2007 till now, she was CFO and Joint MD. Though along expected lines, things were probably not all that clear a couple of years ago, with Kalpana Morparia and Nachiket Mor also touted as likely successors to Kamath. However, their exit from ICICI Bank probably made it easier for the ICICI board to appoint Kochhar, who, at 46, is reasonably young and has ample time on her side.

Considering all the storms the bank has had to weather this year on account of the financial meltdown, the subprime crisis, and a malicious SMS campaign, she will certainly need all that time to get the bank back on an even footing in order to take on their competitors.

Related Posts:

• Axis Bank – Shikha Sharma takes over as Nayak moves out
• Kalpana Morparia leaves ICICI Bank, joins JP Morgan
• HDFC Bank is a khadoos bank
• ICICI Bank and Singapore Airlines launch co-branded credit card
• Chandrasekaran to replace Ramadorai at TCS

Some of these businessmen were:

• Ashok Kapur, non-executive Chairman and promoter, Yes Bank
• Andreas Liveras, cruise ship tycoon, one of Britain’s most successful entrepreneurs
• Ajit Chhabria, Hotelier
• Sunil Parekh, associated with the shipping industry
• Pankaj Shah, owner of the real-estate company, the Satellite Group
• Kanubhai Patel, head of Bipico Industries
• Anand Bhatt, trustee of CRY

Some of them had gone to dine at the Taj, and some at the Oberoi, where they were killed during the shootout in the restaurants, never having a chance of surviving such a deadly attack. Will add to this list as I get more info.

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This is the holding company, through which Khattar also has plans to get into real estate and other joint ventures. Initially, the investment in the new venture is expected to be around Rs.100 crore. Khattar has roped in no less than Azim Premji, the Wipro bossman, albeit the latter is doing so in his individual capacity via his PE arm, Premji Invest, along with IFCI.

The company aims to become a one stop shop for new and used cars, service network for maintenance, mechanical and collision repair and other value-added services, and would have dedicated teams to manage each brand.

It seems like a pretty good idea and manufacturers will be interested in being able to cut down on some of their overhead costs.

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Venkatesh Roddam, the chief executive officer of Satyam BPO, has resigned. The company, in a statement, said his resignation has not created any leadership vacuum in the company, saying COO Vijay Rangineni will take charge in the interim before a new CEO was appointed.

Meanwhile, Jerry Rao, Chairman, EDS Asia Pacific Advisory Board, announced his resignation from the advisory board of MphasiS, saying he wanted to pursue personal interests.

Jerry Rao founded MphasiS and was heading it from 2001-2006, before moving to a non-executive post after it was taken over by EDS, which incidentally has now been acquired by HP for $13.9 billion.

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• P.Chidambaram and Ramalinga Raju – two sides of the same coin?
• Chandrasekaran to replace Ramadorai at TCS

From the time she started off with the bank’s legal department in 1975, to becoming Joint MD, she was often the public face of the company and was part of the power group along with KV Kamath, Chanda Kochhar, Lalita Gupte and Nachiket Mor.

There has been speculation for some time over who will ultimately take over from Kamath and this latest move from Morparia means that Chanda Kochhar now has a clear field.

Morparia had earlier proposed floating a separate holding company which would allow the bank to move it’s shareholding in it’s AMC and insurance business into a separate company. However, that plan fell through after objections from the banking regulator, possibly hastening her slide as well.

Related Posts:

• Axis Bank – Shikha Sharma takes over as Nayak moves out
• Chanda Kochhar to be next ICICI Bank CEO and MD
• HDFC Bank is a khadoos bank
• ICICI Bank and Singapore Airlines launch co-branded credit card
• Chandrasekaran to replace Ramadorai at TCS

Motorola spokeswoman Jennifer Erickson said,

He left to return to the New York area to be with his family and pursue other opportunities.

Nottenburg had taken over the post in January this year, after the exit of Padmasree Warrior, who left in December to join Cisco.

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• Moto-shock – Padmasree Warrior leaves Motorola, joins Cisco
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• Chanda Kochhar to be next ICICI Bank CEO and MD

He joined the Reliance Group in 1995 after leaving NTPC, where he worked for over 15 years. Chalasani has handled various assignments for the ADA Group including the successful bidding for two ultra mega power projects.

Reliance Power is the flagship company of Reliance ADA Group to develop, construct and operate power generation projects. The company is currently developing 13 power projects with a combined installed capacity of 28,000 Mw and was in the news recently after it’s not so successful listingand subsequent offer of a bonus issue to pacify disgruntled investors.

Related Posts:

• Axis Bank – Shikha Sharma takes over as Nayak moves out
• Chandrasekaran to replace Ramadorai at TCS
• Chanda Kochhar to be next ICICI Bank CEO and MD
• Roddam leaves Satyam, Jerry Rao quits MphasiS board
• Kalpana Morparia leaves ICICI Bank, joins JP Morgan