E-Paper
‘Ravimohan was a true professional’
It was a shock to me and when I got the news I could not believe it. He was a close friend and a good soul and this came to me as a shock as he never complained to me about any health issues.
It was a shock to me and when I got the news I could not believe it. He was a close friend and a good soul and this came to me as a shock as he never complained to me about any health issues.
I have known Ravi for almost 30 years now when he was an officer in ICICI and when HDFC was being set up. I have seen him working at Crisil when I was on its board. Along all these years and across organisations, if there is one line that can describe him it is this: Ravi was a true professional.
We would meet regularly and only three days ago on Christmas eve he came over and had lunch with me and we had a long chat. He was very excited at joining Reliance Industries and he said that he had the mandate from Mukesh Ambani to look at the next decade in terms of what should be done on the various fronts of governance, transparency, how to shape up to the next decade and what changes were necessary in the organisation.
He had very high ethical values and his integrity was unquestionable.
It was for these reasons of strong professionalism combined with strong values that I wanted him to work for our group. At every stage that I was looking for a CEO, I would call him and ask him to join us. I asked him when we were setting up IDFC. Later, when the first IDFC CEO left, I again asked him saying that now it is set up, would you run it? Unfortunately, he did not.
The financial sector will miss his dynamism, in his ability to able to see the future before others. But to me, the personal loss of such a professional hurts.
(The author is chairman, HDFC)
