The Indian School of Business (ISB), in all likelihood, would have a new dean in place when the current incumbent Mendu Rammohan Rao completes his term of office in July this year.
Informed sources, however, insisted that ISB's search for a new dean was in no way linked to the ongoing saga of the beleaguered Satyam Computer Services on the board of which Rao had been an independent director till recently. Rao could not be reached for comment as he is travelling.
Rao had chaired the controversial December 16 board meeting, in which Satyam had decided to takeover the Maytas firms and called off the deal later following investor outrage. He resigned from the company's board on December 29 with two other independent directors Krishna G Palepu and Vinod K Dham.
He also resigned from the selection committees of deputy governor of Reserve Bank of India and chairman of Securities and Exchange Board of India. He had also quit as a member of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.
ISB, explain the sources, had set up a search committee to look out for a new dean last year when Rao said he was not interested in continuing in the current position for another term as he wanted to concentrate on his academic and research work. This happened much before the aborted decision of Satyam to acquire two Maytas firms linked to family of the India's fourth largest IT services provider founder and chairman B Ramalinga Raju.
Besides others, the search committee comprises the deans of Kellogg and Wharton schools of management. It is learnt that the committee has not yet shortlisted the names, which can be considered for the coveted post of the Hyderabad-based premium business school.