Former Infosys director TV Mohandas Pai has invested an undisclosed sum to acquire a significant minority stake in InGovern Research Services Pvt Ltd, an Indian proxy advisory services company, the firm has said. Pai would join the advisory committee of the Bangalore-based company.
InGovern is a proxy advisory firm assisting institutional investors – mutual funds, insurance companies and foreign institutional investors – who have financial or reputation exposure to public-listed companies in India. It offers corporate governance research and proxy advisory services including vote recommendations, corporate governance research and scorecards, corporate governance consulting and education, and risk monitoring besides compensation analysis of directors and executives. InGovern Research covers around 600 companies, including the universe of S&P CNX 500 and BSE 500 indices.
“We are delighted that Mohandas Pai is endorsing the concept of proxy advisory and corporate governance services. His expertise, domain knowledge and relationships will help InGovern catalyse better corporate governance in India,†noted Shriram Subramanian, founder and MD of InGovern.
Subramanian has over 17 years of banking and capital markets consulting experience in asset and wealth management, trading technologies, derivatives consulting and risk management. He had previously served as a Practice Lead for wealth and asset management at Infosys Consulting. Prior to that, he was involved in derivatives training and pricing models for the treasury desks of banks in India, private equity placements, venture capital and equity research.
“Treating minority shareholders fairly is a critical step in building a strong equity market. InGovern has pioneered proxy advisory services and corporate governance research in India, which strengthens the ecosystem and provides a good platform to ensure fair treatment for minority shareholders,†added Pai while commenting on the investment.
Pai is currently the chairperson of Manipal Universal Learning. Earlier, he was a member of the board of directors (human resources, education and research, and administration) at Infosys Technologies Ltd. Pai was a member of several committees constituted by the Indian government and the RBI, and had also served on the board of SEBI.
Last year, he quit Infosys Technologies’ board and also resigned as director-in-charge – HR. At Infosys, Pai was the head of administration, education & research, finance, human resources and the Infosys Leadership Institute. He also took a dig at Infosys founders’ conservative policies which led to growth slowdown compared to smaller peers, and hinted at a lack of transparency in selecting CEOs.
Pai had joined Infosys in 1994 and served as a board member since May 2000. He was the chief financial officer from 1994-2006. In 2006, he voluntarily demitted the office of CFO to lead efforts in the areas of human resources and education & research.
