Tentative chief

Newsmaker

 Chief Operating Officer,

 Britannia

 At 44, Nikhil Sen of Britannia is one of the youngest, if not the youngest, top dog of a listed Indian blue chip.

 The catch is that while discharging the functions and bearing the legal responsibilities of a managing director, he is not called so and remains chief operating officer (COO).

 This underlines the tumultuous circumstances under which he has come to take up the reins of the company.

 It also points to the fact that though Sen does wear the crown by whatever name, the head that lies beneath it must bear considerable unease till the successor to Sunil Alagh is definitively chosen. Sen is in but not yet home and dry.

 Ever since Sunil Alagh was unceremoniously removed from the position of managing director of Britannia a couple of months ago, Sen has had to bear intense public attention.

 This has not been easy for him because he likes to stay away from the limelight, a quality which may be as great an asset for him as its absence contributed to the undoing of his predecessor.

 The speculation was whether he, Alagh's prot