Sudhir Vasudeva, 56, has been selected by the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PSEB) to succeed RS Sharma as the chairman of ONGC. Sharma retires in January. Vasudeva is currently ONGC’s director for offshore operations.
Top job in PSUs often goes to finance or marketing professionals. For example, IOC?s chairman BM Bansal was director marketing became he was picked to head the company as an acting chairman. RS Butola, who has been selected to replace Bansal, is a finance professional. SAIL chairman CS Verma was earlier finance director in Bhel.
Vasudeva, a technical professional, was groomed by Subir Raha when he was the ONGC chief. Raha brought Vasudeva to the company’s corporate communication division in 2004 so that he could get required exposure to handle non-technical responsibility in the future
ONGC was set up in 1956. Since then, it is finance and marketing professionals who have mostly run the company. This will be only the third time in ONGC’s history that a production professional will head the company. Only two persons with production background, BC Bora and SK Manglik, bagged ONGC’s top job earlier.
Offshore is the new battlefield for oil and gas exploration companies, with the size of onland discoveries getting smaller by the day. However, exploration in areas like deepwater blocks is highly capital and technology intensive. Vasudeva will find his experience as offshore director handy while steering the company’s quest for new oil and gas reserves. Vasudeva has more than 34 years of experience with oil and gas activities. He has hands-on experience of over 20 years in oil and gas fields and over 14 years of experience at senior hierarchical and corporate level.