Satyam's Board of Directors

Its now a known fact that the Board of Directors tried to do Ramalinga Raju a favor by approving the acquisition of the Maytas group for a gazillion percent premium. I say it again that this is a scam of huge proportions that need to be taken very seriously and very strict corporate governace laws be put in place. A publicly traded company embezzling public money like this is not acceptable. It shows India as a bad place to do business and more so when an established player like Satyam does it.

Anyway, the idea behind this post is to throw some light on the board at Satyam. Everyone knows Ramalinga Raju the CEO but the board itself did not get much exposure. Here goes -

1. Ramalinga Raju - Also the CEO, his family owns a 35% stake in the Maytas company. His son is on the board of Maytas Properties.

2 B. Rama Raju - the co founder and probably a friend of Raju and so shares the vision to swindle money. I say this because, his son is the Vice Chairman of Maytas properties. Look at Rama Raju Jr here - http://www.maytasproperties.com/leadership.html
Interestingly enough from their web site, Maytas' slogan is translating vision into reality :)

3. Ram Mynampati - Have never of this one.

4. Dr. (Mrs.) Mangalam Srinivasan - She has a long list of accomplishments. She has an PhD, an MBA, held various faculty positions at really prestigious institutions, served as advisor to various central government projects etc.

5. Vinod Dham - Probably the most well known of all the people. The father of the pentium according to wikipedia and now a VC.

6. Dr. Krishna G. Palepu - Dean of Harvard

7. Dr. Mendu Rammohan Rao - Dean of the International School of Business at Hyderabad.

8. T. R. Prasad - Looks like a thorough politician to me. Held various positions including a Cabiner Secretary stint and also is on the board of directors of the ill famed Nagarjuna Group. Coincidence?

9. Prof. V. S. Raju - Looks like a hard core tech guy and then moved into advisor roles.

My point is Satyam has accumulated a really impressive board based on their qualifications and past jobs. And in fell swoop they have all labelled themselves idiots. And more importantly all of them agreed to let this happen or at least a majority of them. So at least a majority of them agreed to take that bribe offered. Since we do not know who did and who did not, I prefer to think they are all corrupt by association.

Look at this interview with Mendu Rammohan Rao (the ISB dean) below, you will see what I am talking about. He comes across as utterly ignorant, has no idea what the duties of a board and ends up scraping to defend himself and the board's decision. I probably would be better than him in every job he holds :)
http://www.in.com/active18/watchnow/watchvideo_mc.php?autono=371555

All these people need to be interviewed and asked the tough questions that interviewer asked Rammohan Rao and give them an opportunity to shame themselves.

Waiting for the day when there is a law suit against the company.

Good links to read -
http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2008/12/17/satyam-can-the-street-ever-trust-management-again/?mod=yahoobarrons
http://www.livemint.com/2008/12/16231515/Nagarjuna8217s-Raju-sent-to.html