Thaindian News

Hyderabad, April 2 (IANS) Godrej Group chairman Adi Godrej was Saturday elected chairman of the Indian School of Business (ISB), succeeding Rajat Gupta, who resigned last month after the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) slapped insider trading charges on him.

Godrej was unanimously elected the chairman by the executive board at its meeting, attended by 14 of its 32 members.

The board accepted the resignation of Indian American businessman Gupta, who CO-founded ISB a decade ago and had since served as its chairman.

Addressing a press conference here, Adi said Gupta was no longer on the board.

Gupta on March 21 had requested the board that he be relieved of his responsibilities.

Asked whether Gupta will come back as chairman after his name is cleared, Godrej said the board did not discuss any such thing.

He did not agree that ISB’s image was affected by the allegations against Gupta or former dean Rammohan Rao. “The ISB’s image is still very strong. I don’t think its image affected in any way. I don’t think one should dramatise anything beyond facts,” he said.

He said neither Gupta nor Rao were involved in any scam whatsoever. Rao, who was independent director of Satyam Computer Services Limited, resigned as dean after the IT firms accounting scam came to light.

Godrej said since there was some administrative action taken against Gupta by the SEC, he took pre-emptive step of resigning from the board. “You should appreciate the integrity of these gentlemen that when there is an accusation or suggestion, they resigned from their positions.”

“The school should continue its level of excellence established in the past. It has been ranked among the top 20 business schools by the Financial Times and if any issue arises with anybody connected with ISB, quick action has to be taken and that has been done and will continue to be done,” he added.

“With the help of dedicated board members and the team led by the dean, ISB will go to greater heights. I think the school is doing exceedingly well and I don’t think anything will come in the way of it continuing to do well and rising to even greater heights,” he said.

ISB Dean Ajit Rangnekar said all students who were looking for placements have found them. He termed as “very good” the response from the industry.

The ISB, which has a standard strength of 560, would increase the batch size by 210 when its second campus at Mohali opens next year, he added.