 "Roopa Kudva")
With her sudden decision to leave rating agency Crisil, Roopa Kudva, its managing director and CEO, may have startled the rating community and the corporate world. But the woman known to be methodical and logical in all her actions would not have taken such a decision without giving it some thought. Perhaps, people should have been prepared for such a move on 51-year-old Kudva's part. As she said when announcing her decision, "Change at the top at judicious intervals is a sound governance practice and allows companies to refresh themselves."
In her own case, she initiated the change after being at the helm for seven years. Having been mentored by the then MD, R Ravimohan, to eventually assume the top post, she carried on the good work of Ravimohan who had taken Crisil beyond its core rating business into research and analytics. Kudva extended ratings to the small and medium enterprises, enabling rated SMEs to get better access to scarce bank funds at competitive rates.
Under her, Crisil might have increased its market capitalisation from Rs 2,900 crore in 2007 to Rs 14,000 crore now, but her leadership can be better gauged by the admirable presence of mind with which she faced the 2007-08 global financial crisis. Realising that financial services would retreat into a shell for a few years and thus impact the bread-and-butter business of rating, Kudva decided on an aggressive diversification policy that paid rich dividends through new revenue streams.
The IIM Ahmedabad graduate hasn't said much about what she will do after Crisil. But activities in which she has engaged herself hint at her interests, mainly financial literacy and philanthropy. One of her colleagues says that she has worked on, and is passionate about, spreading financial literacy in Rajasthan.
A disciplinarian with a soft touch, Kudva is known to have almost a fetish for managing her time and that of others. It is perhaps in this vein that she thought her time at Crisil should now come to an end.
