Leading stock exchange National Stock Exchange has selected IDFC chief Vikram Limaye as its new CEO and Managing Director.
This is two months after the sudden exit of Chitra Ramkrishna from the top post.
NSE’s board gave approval for Limaye’s name for the top position.
Limaye was chosen by a selection panel and his appointment approved by the board of India’s largest stock exchange.
The appointment of Limaye, 50, currently CEO and MD of IDFC Ltd, an infrastructure financing firm, will have to be cleared by the Securities and Exchange Board of India.
Limaye will succeed Chitra Ramkrishna, who left NSE owing to personal reasons on 2 December, a little more than a year before her tenure was to end.
Following her resignation, the board of NSE appointed Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd chairman Anand Mahindra, former Reserve Bank of India deputy governor Usha Thorat, founder of Dhruva Advisors Llp Dinesh Kanabar and former Infosys Ltd director Mohandas Pai consulted to choose Ramkrishna’s successor.
J. Ravichandran, who used to serve as group president of finance and legal and company secretary at NSE, was named the interim MD and CEO.
He will serve in the position until Limaye takes charge.
Limaye, who will be the first NSE CEO from outside the founding team that set up the exchange in the 1990s, will have his hands full at the helm.
The stock exchange has filed a draft prospectus with the regulator for an initial public offering after a long battle with existing shareholders who had wanted the bourse to list earlier.
Sebi is currently examining allegations against NSE that it gave preferential and unfair access to some brokers on its algorithmic trading platform.
Sebi is also studying a forensic audit report on this issue prepared by Deloitte India.
Limaye was also named to a four-member committee formed by the Supreme Court to manage the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).
Limaye has served as the head of IDFC for four years.
A chartered accountant with a master’s degree in business administration, Limaye started his career with Arthur Andersen in Mumbai in 1987.
He has worked in the audit and business advisory services groups of Arthur Andersen and EY and the consumer banking groups of Citibank and Credit Suisse.
