Tata Power vice-president Gurunath quits

Mohan S Gurunath, vice-president, business development and strategy, Tata Power, has called it quits ending his two and half years association with the Tatas, citing personal reasons.

When contacted Gurunath said, "I had put in my papers in the beginning of the month. I am relocating to Hyderabad as my family is based there. I will be joining an infrastructure company heading its operations."

Gurunath, however, did not divulge the name of his new employer. Gurunath had joined the Tata group's power company in May 2002 from Enron Corporation (Dabhol Power Company).

Gurunath lead Tata Power's foray into Uttaranchal, with the acquisition of 330 mw Srinagar Hydro Power project. He was also present during the negotiations with Damodar Valley Corporation for the proposed 1,000 mw Right Bank thermal power project. Gurunath was also involved with the dispute between Tata Power and Reliance Energy on standby charges.

Though Tata Power has not yet found a replacement for Gurunath, S Ramakrishnan, executive director of the company, will continue to look after strategy and finance.

Mahesh Bhandari, vice-president, who had been recently elevated to principal executive officer, who reports to Ramakrishnan, will continue to manage the show, sources said.

Ramakrishnan came to Tata Power, following the reshuffle at the Tata group's telecom business. Recently, Tata Power saw Amulya Charan, vice-president ""finance, role being changed to vice-president ""internal audit.

K Chandrashekhar, general manager ""projects, had also left the company.

In mid-2004, Ronald Sequeira joined Tata Power as vice-president ""human resources, a new post created at the company. Sequeira was formerly with Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation.

Apart from FA Vandrevala, managing director, PK Kunde is executive director (operations), who joined the company from MSEB.

Two months back, Tata Power raised about Rs 600 crore through a private placement of debentures. The debentures bear a coupon of 4 per cent for the first two years and thereafter six per cent for the remaining tenure of nine years.

The money raised through this issue will be used for its expansion plans in the power sector and to lower its cost of capital.