Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) executive director (ED) B Ashok has been chosen by the public enterprises selection board (PESB) to become the next chairman of the oil marketing company.
Current chairman RS Butola will complete his term on May 31, 2014. The PESB has been set up with the objective of evolving a sound managerial policy for the central public sector enterprises and, in particular, to advise the government on appointments to their top management posts.?
Ashok was among the 6 candidates interviewed on Wednesday by the PESB. The other candidates in the fray included BD Yadav, Sanjiv Singh, BS Canth (all IOC ED’s), as well as MS Rana , CMD of Security Printing and Minting Corporation of India Limited (SPMCIL) and Ravi Kanth, CMD, Projects and Development India Ltd (PDIL).
The applicants from IOC were all ED’s who lack board-level experience.
On the other hand, none of the directors of IOC applied as they did not have the required service period left. Analysts, however, said that the selection of an ED might give rise to a tricky situation as all the existing directors who are senior in age and experience to Ashok will have to report to him. BC Tripathi, chairman of GAIL, who was the oil industry heavyweight among the candidates expected to be in contention for the position did not attend the interview.
Though Tripathi has five years to go before hitting the retirement age of 60, he has opted to stay out of the interviews for chairman positions at both ONGC and now IOC.
IOC is the world’s 88th largest corporations, according to the Fortune Global 500 list, and the largest public corporation in India by revenue.
It controls about half of the fuel market in the country and has a 31% share in refining capacity in India. It owns and operates 10 of India’s 22 refineries.