New SEBI rules: Wipro chairman Rishad Premji likely to lose executive role after 1 April this year

Wipro chairman Rishad Premji may lose his executive role in the IT firm after 1 April this year in the wake of the new guidelines of the market regulator SEBI, said a news report. According to the 2018 rules of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the top 500 listed entities will have to ensure that the chairperson is a non-executive director from 1 April this year. It will eventually lead to a split in the post of chairman and managing director (CMD). [caption id=“attachment_2206438” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Wipro chairman Rishad Premji. Forbes India[/caption] Earlier, Wipro had approached SEBI with a proposal seeking the regulator’s nod to permit Rishad to continue in the executive role after he took over the reins of the company from founder-chairman Azim Premji in 2019, said a report in The Times of India. However, the market regulator had informed Wipro that since Rishad would also play an executive role in the company besides being the chairman of the board, the structure would not meet the SEBI’s guidelines to segregate the roles of chairman and CEO ‘in letter and spirit’, the report said quoting sources. Though Azim Premji retired as executive chairman in July last year, he continued to serve on the board as a non-executive director and founder chairman. In December last year, Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd (M&M) had announced that Anand Mahindra , Chairman, Mahindra Group, was taking on the role of non-executive chairman from April 2020. Pawan Kumar Goenka, current managing director of the home-grown auto major, will be promoted as managing director and Chief Executive Officer with effect from 1 April, 2020 till the end of his current term up to 11 November 2020. In order to comply with the SEBI guidelines, changes are imminent in over 214 companies, including banks, public sector enterprises and large corporates, including Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Auto and Adani Ports, said a report in Mint. — With PTI inputs