Friday, August 11 2006 17:12 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Bangalore: SEBI would very soon make public names of 'so called' professional directors on boards of companies who have made it 'their profession' to be directors on boards without owning a single share and any effective contribution, its Chairman M Damodaran said today (Aug 11, 2006).

Coming down heavily on 'so called' professional directors who have become 'permanent entities' more permanent than furniture in board rooms, Damodaran said here SEBI would go public with their names very soon.

"You have so called professional directors on the Boards not professional directors in terms of a Director (Finance) or Director (Materials) or Director (Human Resources) but men and women who have made it their profession to be directors on boards", he said.



Damodaran said he doesn't mind if they (so called professional directors) go from board 'A' at the end of three years to Board 'B' and Board 'C' etc and thereafter to whatever as an alphabet they can get to.

"I don't mind if they are on a number of boards provided they read the papers think about the issues and contribute effectively rather than get into a large number of boards", he said at a programme.

"But I certainly mind when these people get on boards and become permanent entities more permanent than the furniture in the boardrooms," he said.

"We will go public with their names very soon who have been in institutions and organisations promoted by institutionsin the public perception supposedly public institutions. People who without owning one share some of them (companies) not even listed have been on boards for ten years11 years", Damodaran said.

He said some of these so called professional directors have a notion that they can outlive anything even promoters and laws and regulations.

"That kind of entity I think needs to be tackled", Damodaran said in his inaugural address to an orientation programme for company directors and other professionals on 'New Frontiers of Corporate Governance', organised by the National Law School of India University in collaboration with the National Foundation for Corporate Governance.