Roopa Kudva takes over as CRISIL MD & CEO

Ms. Roopa Kudva has been appointed Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of CRISIL, India's leading ratings, research, risk and policy advisory company.

She succeeds Mr. R. Ravimohan, who has been appointed Managing Director and Region Head, South Asia of Standard & Poor's, the world's foremost provider of financial market intelligence. Ms. Kudva has been inducted into the Board of CRISIL as a full time Director and Mr. Ravimohan will continue to be a Director. Both appointments take immediate effect.

Ms. Kudva was previously CRISIL's Executive Director and Chief Rating Officer. She has spent 15 years with CRISIL and 7 years heading its ratings business, which is the market leader in India.

In his new role, Mr. Ravimohan will lead Standard & Poor's rapidly growing businesses and operations in South Asia - an area that includes the markets of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Mauritius and The Seychelles.

He will be responsible for strengthening S&P's position as a leading provider of financial market intelligence to customers in India's credit risk management, wealth management, and data and information markets by taking advantage of Standard & Poor's global coverage, network, expertise and know-how and combining these with our local resources, knowledge, and delivery processes, including those offered by CRISIL, to tailor services to the needs of the global and local markets.

He will also be responsible for further integrating the activities of Standard & Poor's and CRISIL, managing Standard & Poor's global resource management operations locally, and exploring investments in ventures that are of strategic importance to our global operations, including those in the technology and financial arenas.

"It is a matter of great satisfaction to move on after building CRISIL into a strong multi-dimensional business with leadership positions and strong growth potential in each business it is engaged in. On behalf of Standard & Poor's, I look forward to working in partnership with Roopa Kudva at CRISIL in helping build a modern, globalised financial market in India and with Hemant Joshi at CRISIL Risk and Infrastructure Solutions Ltd. in delivering state of the art risk and infrastructure solutions to the dynamically growing markets in India," said Mr. R. Ravimohan Mr. B.V. Bhargava, Chairman of CRISIL, commented, "Ravimohan has driven the transformation of CRISIL from being a market leader as a credit rating agency, to a well-diversified analytical company, withleadership positions and strong domestic and international operations in the ratings, research and advisory domains."

He added, "Roopa has led the CRISIL ratings business to its current position of dominance in India and has played an influential role in the development of CRISIL's diversified businesses. She is widely respected in the financial markets and is the perfect candidate to lead the continuing expansion and diversification of CRISIL's domestic and international activities, in conjunction with S&P."

Says Ms. Roopa Kudva, "We have market leadership positions in our ratings, research and offshoring businesses and a strong management team. We are well positioned to take advantage of the tremendous opportunities for growth that the current business environment has to offer. Our continued focus will be on offering innovative and high quality services to our customers and exciting career opportunities to our highly talented people."

In light of these changes, CRISIL's board has been reconstituted. Ms. Roopa Kudva joins the Board as a whole time director and ceases to be an Alternate Director. Mr. Ravinder Singhania has resigned from the board and will serve as an alternate director to Mr. Deven Sharma.

Dr Subir Gokarn, currently Chief Economist of CRISIL, will take on the additional role of Chief Economist in Asia-Pacific for Standard & Poor's. He will be responsible for shaping Standard & Poor's acro-economic views in Asia-Pacific and expanding its research and commentary on the region's rapidly growing economies. He has also been appointed the Chairman of the newly constituted CRISIL's Knowledge & Innovation Council.