Murthy to join HSBC board; Rs 52 lakh salary

Global banking giant HSBC on Monday said Infosys chief mentor N R Narayana Murthy will join its board in May with an annual renumeration of 65,000 pounds (about Rs 52 lakh).

"Nagavara Ramarao Narayana Murthy (61) has been appointed a director of HSBC Holdings plc with effect from May 1, 2008. He will be an independent non-executive director, HSBC said in a regulatory filing.

The appointment shall be for an initial three-year term, which will expire at the conclusion of the 2011 Annual General Meeting, it said.

As a non-executive director, Murthy will not have a service contract with HSBC Holdings plc and would be paid a director's fee of 65,000 pounds per annum as authorised by shareholders at the 2006 Annual General Meeting, it said.

Murthy currently holds the position of chief mentor of Infosys Technologies, which he co-founded in 1981, and was its CEO for 21 years.

A leading international financial conglomerate, HSBC Holdings plc serves over 125 million customers worldwide. According to the company statement, the directors have determined that Murthy is independent and he has no interests in the shares of HSBC.

In making that determination, the directors concluded there are no relationships which are likely to affect Murthy's judgment, and any relationships or circumstances that could appear to do so were considered not to be material.

Murthy is also an independent non-executive director of global FMCG giant Unilever plc and Indian media firm New Delhi Television Ltd (NDTV), and a director of the United Nations Foundation.

Besides, he is presently rendering his service as a non-executive director to Singapore-based DBS Bank Ltd and the term will come to an end on April 2 this year.

Murthy, known as a corporate philanthropist, is also a member of several educational institutions including Cornell, INSEAD, Stanford and Yale.

He has also spearheaded a number of corporate governance initiatives in India, and is serving as chairman of a committee on Corporate Governance appointed by the Securities and Exchange Board of India in 2003.