NEW DELHI: After a gap of
over one and a half years, national carrier Air India will fill its board with
three professionals in a couple of months who will serve as independent
directors, said officials in the civil aviation ministry familiar with the development.
The choice of top experts on the board is a clear departure from the earlier practice of getting reputed industrialists to help the state-owned airline with its key decisions. The AI board has nine directors at present, but three posts of independent directors have remained vacant since March 2011.
"We have requested ex-Proctor & Gamble CEO and writer Gurcharan Das, international management guru and sought-after business advisor Professor Ram Charan and co-founder director of IIT Roorkee Professor Prem Vrat to join the AI board as independent directors," a senior official from the civil aviation ministry said.
Earlier, Anand G Mahindra , vice-chairman and managing director of the Mahindra Group, Amit Mitra, ex-secretary general of industry body Ficci and Yousuffali MA, managing director of Abu Dhabi-based EMKE Group, were the independent directors with corporate interests, who quit long back.
Chairman of Ambuja Realty Development Harsh Neotia and former chief of the Indian Air Force, Air Chief Marshal Fali Homi Major are the other two independent directors who continue to hold the post.
While Mahindra stepped down from the Air India board in April 2011 citing conflict of interest as he too launched a business in the aviation space, Mitra put in his papers the same month as he was contesting the assembly elections in West Bengal.
Yousuffali resigned this July saying he wasn't interested in this position any more and wanted to launch an airline from Kerala.
"This time, the minister does not want politics in the AI board and wants to focus on the turnaround of the airline with the expertise of independent directors," the ministry official said.
The government has also opted for experts because it thinks that commercial people don't have enough time, while Air India needs people who have experience in advising companies and turning businesses around, he added.
Both Mitra and Mahindra were appointed to the Air India board as independent directors in 2010, along with Neotia and former Air Chief Marshal Fali Homi Major, to shore up the financial performance of the carrier.
In October 2010, the four directors in a representation to the Prime Minister's Office objected to the manner in which the airline's revival plan was being executed.The immediate trigger was the procedure followed in appointing a Chief Training Officer for Air India as well as a CEO for AI's low-fare carrier Air India Express. The CTO Stephan Sukumar resigned later, while the AI Express CEO Pawan Arora was sacked by the Air India board.
The choice of top experts on the board is a clear departure from the earlier practice of getting reputed industrialists to help the state-owned airline with its key decisions. The AI board has nine directors at present, but three posts of independent directors have remained vacant since March 2011.
"We have requested ex-Proctor & Gamble CEO and writer Gurcharan Das, international management guru and sought-after business advisor Professor Ram Charan and co-founder director of IIT Roorkee Professor Prem Vrat to join the AI board as independent directors," a senior official from the civil aviation ministry said.
Earlier, Anand G Mahindra , vice-chairman and managing director of the Mahindra Group, Amit Mitra, ex-secretary general of industry body Ficci and Yousuffali MA, managing director of Abu Dhabi-based EMKE Group, were the independent directors with corporate interests, who quit long back.
Chairman of Ambuja Realty Development Harsh Neotia and former chief of the Indian Air Force, Air Chief Marshal Fali Homi Major are the other two independent directors who continue to hold the post.
While Mahindra stepped down from the Air India board in April 2011 citing conflict of interest as he too launched a business in the aviation space, Mitra put in his papers the same month as he was contesting the assembly elections in West Bengal.
Yousuffali resigned this July saying he wasn't interested in this position any more and wanted to launch an airline from Kerala.
"This time, the minister does not want politics in the AI board and wants to focus on the turnaround of the airline with the expertise of independent directors," the ministry official said.
The government has also opted for experts because it thinks that commercial people don't have enough time, while Air India needs people who have experience in advising companies and turning businesses around, he added.
Both Mitra and Mahindra were appointed to the Air India board as independent directors in 2010, along with Neotia and former Air Chief Marshal Fali Homi Major, to shore up the financial performance of the carrier.
In October 2010, the four directors in a representation to the Prime Minister's Office objected to the manner in which the airline's revival plan was being executed.The immediate trigger was the procedure followed in appointing a Chief Training Officer for Air India as well as a CEO for AI's low-fare carrier Air India Express. The CTO Stephan Sukumar resigned later, while the AI Express CEO Pawan Arora was sacked by the Air India board.
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