Six from GAIL in Dir. Mktg. PESB interviews
Six internal GAIL candidates and four outsiders have been invited to appear for the director marketing interviews on March 29 (2023).
However, industry sources continue to bet that the PESB will choose an outsider with core marketing experience, which they claim none of the GAIL candidates has. A PESB notice issued on March 17 (2023) says it will hold GAIL director marketing interviews between 3.30pm and 5.30pm on March 29.
Among those invited for interviews are GAIL executive directors Sanjay Kumar (Indraprastha Gas managing director), Rajeev Singhal, Sumit Kishore, Anupam Mukhopadhyay, Supriyo Halder, and HK Srivastava. Also in the race are IndianOil ED Sandeep Jain, Vivek Jaiswal from state-owned telecoms company BSNL, Alok Tripathi from Indian Railways subsidiary National High-Speed Rail Corporation and Dipten Banerjee from privately-owned aluminium and copper manufacturer Hindalco.
By the December 8 (2022) deadline, GAIL had sent a list of 20 applicants (16 EDs and four CGMs) to the PESB. But earlier this month (March), the PESB asked GAIL to indicate which applicants have core marketing experience.
GAIL insiders tell us none of the 16 EDs on the original GAIL list had core marketing experience; none were recruited initially into the marketing department; they all moved up the career ladder into marketing and business development through promotions. The same was true for most of the CGMs.
Most are either core pipeline operations and maintenance (O&M) or projects department professionals or from other disciplines within GAIL. All were promoted into marketing/business development department vacancies through natural career progression.
Almost all GAIL departments, including marketing and HR, have been taken over by pipeline O&M executives who work to bring more O&M executives into those departments, we hear. Still unclear is what reply GAIL gave to the PESB.
But well-placed sources speculate it must have given evasive answers to explain most applicants' lack of core marketing experience. Such responses are unlikely to have satisfied PESB boss (Ms) Mallika Srinivasan, with her background as chairman of the family-owned domestic tractor manufacturer TAFE.
"It's unlikely she would have been convinced (by the GAIL response)," we hear. GAIL did not respond to a detailed email seeking comment.
MV Iyer, GAIL director BD is temporarily in charge of the marketing position, but he retires on October 31 (2023).