M. Damodaran

Meleveetil Damodaran
Nationality India Indian
Occupation Administrator

Meleveetil Damodaran is a business executive and former government official, presently Advisor and Chief Representative in India for the ING Group of Netherlands. He served as the Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), India's financial markets regulator, from February, 2005 to February, 2008. Prior to this, he served Head of IDBI, a development finance institution which he converted to a bank. He was also Chairman of Unit Trust of India, then India's largest mutual fund from July, 2001 to December, 2004. He belongs to the Indian Administrative Service, Manipur-Tripura cadre, which is the administrative civil service of the Government of India, and served as Joint Secretary of the Banking Division of the Indian Ministry of Finance for five years.

Early life

Meleveetil Damodaran was born in Madras, Tamil nadu in May, 1947. He graduated with distinction in Economics and in Law from the Universities of Madras and Delhi respectively.

Career

He began his career as a Probationary Officer - 1970 batch - in State Bank of India. He later on joined the Indian Administrative Service - 1972 batch - in the Indian state of Tripura, where he served in different developmental and regulatory positions. He was appointed Tripura’s Chief Secretary in 1992, when he became the youngest person ever in India to hold such a position in a State Government.[1]

In 2001, he was appointed the Chairman of Unit Trust of India (UTI) to rescue India’s largest and oldest investment institution, which had collapsed. He restored UTI to health in arguably the most successful turnaround stories in Indian financial sector history.[2] He was simultaneously given charge of Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI), another of India’s major financial institutions. Here, he created the Stressed Assets Stabilisation Fund, which helped clean IDBI’s books,[3] facilitating its conversion to a commercial bank and its merger with another bank.

As Chairman of SEBI, he brought improved corporate governance practices [4] to India’s securities market. He was the Chairman of the Taskforce on Corporate Governance constituted by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). While at SEBI, he was elected Chairman of the Emerging Markets Committee of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), [5] a position he held till he demitted office as Chairman, SEBI. Among his many contributions was the introduction of QIP, an instrument for follow on offerings which until then was going to other markets. He was succeeded as chairman of SEBI by C.B.Bhave.

He has been awarded the Public Service Excellence Award (2009) by All India Management Association,[6] the Economic Times Award for Change Agent of the Year (2006–07),[7] and Finance Man of the year (2004),[8] among other distinctions.

Select Boards and Affiliations

• Advisor and Chief Representative in India for the ING Group of Netherlands.[9]

• Member of the Board of Hero MotoCorp Limited (formerly Hero Honda Motors Limited),[10] Tech Mahindra Limited [11] and ING Vysya Bank Limited.

•Chairman of the Society and Board of Governors of the Indian Institute of Management Tiruchirappalli.[12] and Chairman of Glocal Healthcare Systems, [13]

References

  1. ↑ Ey.com
  2. ↑ Rediff
  3. ↑ Knowledge @ Wharton
  4. ↑ Salwan Media
  5. ↑ European Speakers
  6. ↑ AIMA Public Service Excellence Award
  7. ↑ Economic Times, Congratulates Mr. Damodaran
  8. ↑ The Finance Man of The Year Award
  9. ↑ E Financial News, ING Group names India Adviser
  10. ↑ Hero Motocorp, Committee of Directors
  11. ↑ Tech Mahindra, Additional Director of the Company
  12. ↑ IIM Trichy, Chairman, IIM Trichy
  13. ↑ Indian Express, From Sebi to start-up: Damodaran begins a journey

External links