Leading cement manufacturer The Ramco Cements Ltd on Tuesday said it had separated the roles of Chairperson and Managing Director in consonance with the new governance norms.
The SEBI Committee on Corporate Governance headed by Uday Kotak had, among other things, recommended the separation of the roles of Non-executive Chairperson & Managing Director, which is considered to be one of the highest standards of corporate governance.
Accepting the recommendations of the Committee, SEBI had brought in amendments in LODR Regulations to implement the same with effect from April 1, 2022. However, companies were given an option to adopt this provision voluntarily.
Venketrama Raja to continue as MD
The Board of Ramco Cements, at its meeting held on May 23, 2022, had unanimously decided to separate the two posts and elected M F Farooqui (67), IAS (Retd), Independent Director, as the Chairman of the Board of Directors, effective June 4, 2022., according to a statement.
P R Venketrama Raja (63) would continue to be the Managing Director of the company.
The present tenure of Venketrama Raja ends on June 3, 2022. The Board of Directors has appointed him for another period of five years starting from June 4, 2022, subject to shareholders’ approval at the forthcoming Annual General Meeting.
M F Farooqui has been on the Board of The Ramco Cements Limited as Independent Director since 2017.
He has spent 36 years as a career Civil Servant in the Indian Administrative Service, working in various positions, including as Secretary–Department of Telecom and Heavy Industries, Special Secretary & Additional Secretary–Ministry of Environment and Joint Secretary–Department of Economic Affairs.
He was also Principal Secretary – Industries Department, Member Secretary–Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority and Deputy Secretary in Finance Department in Government of Tamil Nadu.