Date:26/07/2006 URL: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/07/26/stories/2006072603530800.htm

Back New IRMA chief may be announced next month

Virendra Pandit

Anand (Gujarat) , July 25

The successor to Dr Verghese Kurien as the next Chairman of the Institute of Rural Management-Anand (IRMA) may be announced next month at the board of governors' meeting.

IRMA sources told Business Line on Monday that the three-member select committee, headed by Dr Amrita Patel, Chairperson of National Dairy Development Board, has short-listed names for the post held by Dr Kurien for about three decades.

These names would be put up before the board for a final selection.

Patel-led panel

The Patel-led select committee, with the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA) Director, Dr Bakul Dholakia, and Mr Vijay Mahajan (Hyderabad) as members, had been constituted at the June 8 meeting of the board, which accepted the resignation of Dr Kurien.

The committee had been entrusted with the task of selection of new chairman within a month and appointed Dr Amrita Patel as acting Chairperson.

Successor to Vasvani

The board had also set up another committee to select a successor to Mr L.K Vasvani, a Kurien protégé and former Executive Director of IRMA, within 90 days.

Till then, the board has appointed Ms Neelima Khaitan as acting Executive Director in the place of Mr Vasvani who was also Member-Secretary of the 15-member board by virtue of his office.

According to sources, Dr Patel declined to accept full-time Chairpersonship of IRMA despite being the most likely candidate who had seen IRMA grow right from its inception.