ITC appoints new CFO Supratim Dutta as per strategy to lower age of top deck

KOLKATA: ITC Ltd has appointed Supratim Dutta as its new chief financial officer (CFO) continuing with the conglomerate’s strategy of appointing relatively younger blood in key senior management positions. Rajiv Tandon, 66, who was erstwhile CFO and also an executive director on the company’s board will continue as a director henceforth.
In a stock exchange filing on Saturday night, ITC said Dutta’s appointment is with effect from September 5.

The company has recently made two more changes in the senior management team. Vikas Gupta, who was the chief of lifestyle retailing business, has been given additional responsibility as the head of education and stationery business. Rajnikant Rai has been made the chief executive of agri-business, where he was operating as its chief operating officer. These changes are reflected in ITC’s website.

Commenting on Dutta’s appointment, Abneesh Roy of Edelweiss Securities said the average age of top management continues to reduce at ITC. “He (Dutta) has been in ITC for 30 years and relatively young from ITC perspective at 53,” he said.

Dutta, a chartered and cost accountant, joined ITC in 1990 and has worked in various areas of finance such as planning, treasury, M&A, accounting, taxation, IT, investor relations and business strategy.

Meanwhile, two veteran executive directors of ITC – Nakul Anand, 63, (who oversees hospitality, travel, tourism and lifestyle retailing businesses) and Tandon were re-elected by shareholders in the company’s board as executive directors after the company’s annual general meeting (AGM) last Friday.

In fact, responding to a shareholder observation about the high age of ITC’s board during the AGM, chairman and managing director Sanjiv Puri had said the merit of a board is not by its age but the wealth of experience they bring.