Karnik appointed new Satyam chairman

06 February 2009

Kiran Karnik was today appointed chairman of the board of fraud-hit Satyam Computer Services,corporate affairs minister P C Gupta announced today. The announcement was made in the capital  by Gupta, whose ministry had earlier moved the Company Law Board to disband the erstwhile Satyam board following disclosure of fraud by company founder Ramalinga Raju.

Karnik's appointment comes a day after the appointment of AS Murthy as the new CEO of the fraud hit IT major.

Karnik, newly appointed chairman of Satyam, was Nasscom president in 2001-02. He has  held several key positions in the IT sector. He was also managing director of Discovery Network in the country.

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

The board was later expanded by nomination of three more members including CII chief mentor Tarun Das, LIC nominee S Balakrishna Mainak and past president of ICAI, TN Manoharan.

The appointment of AS Murty yesterday had created a minor controversy following reports that he had sold 40,000 Satyam shares in December.