Kiran Karnik appointed Satyam chairman

A day after Satyam veteran A S Murty was named the company's chief executive officer, the government on Friday announced the appointment of Nasscom (National Association of Software and Service Companies) past-president Kiran Karnik as chairman of its six-member board.

The announcement was made by Corporate Affairs Minister P C Gupta, whose ministry had earlier moved the Company Law Board to disband the erstwhile Satyam board after disclosure of fraud by company founder Ramalinga Raju.

Pursuant to the directions of the CLB, the government initially constituted the board of Satyam with three members including Karnik, HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh and past presiding officer of Securities Appellate Tribunal C Achutan.

The government later expanded the board of Satyam by nominating three more members including CII (Confederation on Indian Industry) chief mentor Tarun Das, LIC (Life Insurance Corporation) nominee S Balakrishna Mainak and past president of ICAI (Institute of Chartered Accountants of India) T N Manoharan.

The board had held several meetings at the IT company's headquarters and had cleared the appointment of Murty and two other advisers. Karnik, who will head Satyam, was Nasscom president in 2001-02 and has earlier held several key positions in the IT sector.

He has also served as managing director of Discovery Network in India.