Meleveetil Damodaran
Chairperson, The Damodaran Group Chairperson, Excellence Enablers Private Limited Managing Trustee, Non-Executive Directors in Conversation Trust (NEDICT)
Former Chairman: Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Unit Trust of India (UTI) Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI)
Meleveetil Damodaran, has, in a career spanning over 40 years, worked with the Union and the State governments in India, regulatory bodies, investment institutions, banks, development financial institutions and with the private sector. A member of the premier Indian Administrative Service, he has held a number of regulatory and developmental positions in the Government and in India’s financial sector, before demitting office as Chairman, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on February 18, 2008. He graduated with distinction in Economics and in Law from the Universities of Madras and Delhi respectively. He has won several awards for his scholastic achievements at both the school and university level.
After a career spanning several regulatory and developmental assignments in the state of Tripura, he was appointed as its Chief Secretary in 1992, the youngest ever in the country to hold such a position in any State Government. During his tenure, Tripura held statewide elections without a single instance of repolling in a State which had seen more than 100 election related deaths in the run up to the previous election. He also led the State’s transformation from an entity that could not pay salaries in time, to an overdraft free State that was recognized for fiscal discipline. This effort led to the State government receiving additional central financial assistance as an incentive for excellent resource management. Thereafter, he worked as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Finance, Banking Division, for five years, dealing with Government’s ownership functions of Public Sector Banks and being its interface with Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the regulator of India’s banking system. The first set of public issues of shareholding in the Government owned banks took place in his tenure. Thereafter, as Officer on Special Duty with RBI, he authored the revival plans for three identified weak public sector banks, Indian Bank, UCO Bank and United Bank of India, the closure of which had been recommended by CII in a report on banking.
In 2001, he was appointed the Chairman of Unit Trust of India (UTI) to rescue India’s largest and oldest investment institution which had collapsed. His restoring of UTI to health and strength is widely acknowledged as the most successful turnaround story in India’s Financial Sector. An institution whose obituary had been written was restructured as India’s largest mutual fund with exemplary governance practices being put in place. He was simultaneously given charge of Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI), another of India’s major financial institutions, which too was restructured by him in an innovative manner, pulling it back from the brink, transforming it to a bank, and merging it with another commercial bank. The unique Stressed Assets Stabilisation Fund (SASF) which helped clean IDBI’s books was his creation. This cash neutral approach to cleaning the asset side of the bank books enabled IDBI to retain its credit rating.
As Chairman SEBI, he brought improved practices to India’s securities market. He is widely acknowledged as one of the India’s foremost champions of Corporate Governance. During his tenure he introduced QIP, a new instrument for follow-on offerings in the Indian Market. This instrument prevented the continuing export of India’s capital market. During his tenure at SEBI, he was elected Chairman of the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO)’s 80 member Emerging Markets Committee for two years. In 2007, he organized, for the first time in India, the annual conference of securities markets’ regulators from all over the world. This conference is even now spoken of as the best annual conference that IOSCO has ever organized.
After successful stints at UTI, IDBI and SEBI, he has set up Excellence Enablers Private Limited (EEPL), a Corporate Governance and Board Advisory consultancy firm. His pioneering role in promoting Corporate Governance in India invests EEPL with an experience-based leadership role in corporate governance advisory work. In addition, he is presently a consultant, advisor, coach and mentor and sits on the Boards of some leading companies as well as on the Advisory Boards of some foreign entities. He is the founder Chairman of the Indian Institute of Management Tiruchirapalli and the Chairman and one of the promoters of Glocal Healthcare Systems Private Limited, a unique approach for providing quality healthcare in rural areas.
His recent initiative, Non-Executive Directors in Conversation Trust, NEDICT, is a manifestation of his obsession with corporate governance.
As one of the foremost advocates of Corporate Governance in India, he advises on improving Boardroom performance. He chaired the Taskforce on Corporate Governance constituted by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
He has been a recipient of several prestigious awards for leadership, transformation and Public Service. He is also regular on the public speaking circuit and has chaired several juries.
His people management skills deriving from a high emotional quotient have been captured in the book “In Search of Change Maestros (Sage Publications)” authored by Dr. Pritam Singh and Dr. Asha Bhandarker.
List of Awards
- Life Time Achievement Award in Public Governance by Asian Centre for Corporate Governance and Sustainability (2013)
- Corporate Excellence for Policy Change Agent of the Year (2006-07) by Economic Times
- India Business Leaders Award (2006) for Outstanding Contribution to the Cause of Indian Business by CNBC
- Public Service Excellence Award (2009) by All India Management Association
- Finance Man of the Year (2004) by Bombay Management Association, Association of Leasing and Financial Service Companies of India, Association of Merchant Bankers of India, Association of Mutual Funds in India, Finance Industry Development Council, Indian Merchant’s Chambers and Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India
- Centenarian Professional Excellence Award (2005)
- Rotary Award for Professional Excellence (2008) by Rotary International District 3050
- Vocational Excellence Award (2003-04) by Rotary District 3140
- National Award for Outstanding Contribution in the Field of Public Service (2004) by Priyadarshini Academy at their 20th Anniversary Global Awards Function
- Golden Peacock Award for Leadership in Corporate Transformation (2003)