Reliance Industries Executive Director R Ravimohan is no more. He died Monday night due to a severe cardiac arrest. He was 52. Ravimohan is survived by wife Madhuralakshmi, daughter Hridaya and son Jagad.
Regarded as one of India’s finest brains in the financial world, Ravimohan was till last September Managing Director and Region Head, South and South East Asia, Standard & Poor’s.
A qualified chemical engineer and Harvard Business School alumni, Ravimohan was in the special team formed for the acquisition of the petrochemicals company LyondellBasell that was headed by Mukesh Ambani’s right hand man Manoj Modi. He was looking after the acquisition strategy and financial aspects of the deal. It will be difficult for the company to replace such a skilled personality, a company executive said.
Ravimohan endeared himself to all with his rare combination of simple living and sharp intellect. He made Crisil a globally recognised entity and also contributed to the financial inclusion process in his capacity as a member of the Raghuram Rajan Committee on Financial Sector Reforms. He was closely involved with the modernisation of the Indian financial system. He was member, Primary Market Advisory Committee of Sebi, Technical Advisory Committee and Financial Stability and Stern Test Assessment of Committee of Reserve Bank of India.
RIL Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani stated: “We are deeply saddened by the sudden loss of Ravimohan. He was a keen supporter of Reliance Industries and a very dear friend. On behalf of all of us at Reliance Industries, I offer my heartfelt condolences to Ravi’s family and many friends.”
Roopa Kudva, MD and CEO, Crisil and Region Head, South Asia, Standard & Poor’s, said: “He was a mentor and a guide to many of us at Crisil. His style of functioning was to empower people and encourage independent thinking.”
Ravimohan joined Crisil in 1994 as Managing Director and CEO. He is credited with building the company, at that time the market leader in credit ratings, into India’s leading ratings, research, and risk and policy advisory company. In August 2007, he joined Standard & Poor’s as Managing Director and Region Head, South Asia.
Prior to joining Crisil, he was CEO of the Over the Counter Exchange of India — a truly online stock exchange for small firms and a concept that was much ahead of its time and did not pick up.
He started his career with ICICI Ltd where he worked in project appraisal, systems designing, credit administration and merchant banking.
Remembering him, a former senior executive of Crisil said he had a vision to take Crisil to a new height and he actually achieved that. Crisil is now a learning lab for parent company S&P and is getting revenue from various global operations. He has also contributed a lot to S&P’s regional rating for Asean countries.
