Deven Sharma, the man who famously downgraded the US during his tenure as the chief of rating major Standard & Poor, has picked a stake in proxy advisory firm Institutional Investors Advisory Services(IIAS).
He has also joined the company’s Board of Directors, the firm said. Sharma is the second official with a rating agency background to join the firm. Amit Tandon, who was heading Fitch India's operations is a founder and managing director of IIAS.
The advisory space is bustling with activity eversince investors, regulators and other stake holders have renewed their focus on governance issues after the multicrore scandal in Satyam Computer Services.
Two other proxy firms namely Stakeholders Empowerment Services launched by former Sebi official JN Gupta and Ingovern Research of Shriram Subramanian are also operating successfully in the space.
Deven Sharma served as president Standard & Poor's, a Division of The McGraw-Hill Companies from August 2007 till September 2011. Commenting on the development, Deven Sharma said “Governance is central to creating confidence among shareholders to invest in companies and a country's economic future growth. I am pleased to be an investor and join the Board of IIAS as they work to bring greater market transparency through independent corporate governance research and serve to raise the confidence among investors in the Indian capital markets and its future growth.”
“We are very pleased to have Deven as an investor and his joining us as a director on the board of IIAS,” said Anil Singhvi, founder director IIAS. “With his vast experience in the field of ratings and governance, IIAS and our stake holders will benefit imme,nsely from his experience. I look forward to a long mutually beneficial partnership with Deven.”
Deven Sharma has worked with manufacturing companies, Dresser Industries and Anderson Strathclyde. After that he joined Booz Allen Hamilton where he worked for 14 years and led its strategy, operations performance, sales and marketing, and global expansion engagements for service, marketing and information-intensive companies. He left the company as a partner and joined McGraw-Hill in 2002. He had joined McGraw-Hill in 2002 and moved to Standard & Poor’s in 2006 as executive vice president, Investment Service and Global Sales, before serving as its president.
Institutional Investor Advisory Services India Limited (IIAS) is a voting advisory firm, dedicated to providing participants in the Indian market with independent opinion, research and data on corporate governance issues as well as voting recommendations on shareholder resolutions for over 300 companies.
