Union Minister for road transport and highways, Nitin Gadkari, will be the chief guest at the sixth edition of the FE CFO Awards to be held in Mumbai on Tuesday evening. Gadkari, who has been one of the scriptwriters of the India success story by setting a blistering pace in construction of expressways and highways, will give away the awards to some of India’s best chief financial officers (CFOs), chosen by a six-member external jury chaired by HDFC vice-chairman and CEO Keki Mistry.
ITC chairman and managing director Sanjiv Puri will address the august gathering on the topic, “Redefining growth and competitiveness for tomorrow: An ITC perspective”.CFOs are rarely in the limelight even though they play a key role in the running of a company. While 2021-22 might have been a little less stressful time than the previous year, India Inc’s CFOs did not exactly have an easy time. With several parts of the country disrupted due to the pandemic, it was certainly not business as usual.
The pressure on CFOs was severe but many proved they were equal to the task. The FE CFO Awards will be celebrating the success of those that turned in outstanding performances. For many years now, Financial Express has been recognising the efforts of CFOs and acknowledging those who overcome challenges. Given the abundance of talent, picking winners is never easy, but the jury proved equal to the task. Apart from Mistry, the other jury members were Pradip Shah, chairman, IndAsia Fund Advisors; Amit Chandra, chairman, Bain Capital; Vishakha Mulye, MD & CEO, Aditya Birla Capital and Rajeev Gupta, MD, Arpwood.
The data for the selection process was provided by Deloitte.The Lifetime Achievement Award winner is V Srinivasa Rangan, executive director, HDFC for his immense contribution to the lender over nearly four decades. P B Balaji, CFO, Tata Motors Group will be presented the CFO of the Year Award for managing the company’s finances in extremely challenging times.The achievements of more than 20 other CFOs, from a wide range of companies, will also be recognised.
Winners have been chosen from companies in two categories– manufacturing and services — and across sub-categories based on the turnover of the company.In picking the winners, the jury members relied on basic financial parameters including return ratios. They also took into consideration other factors including mergers and acquisitions, sectoral performance, corporate governance, auditors’ comments and credit ratings.
