FSIB Recommends Siddhartha Mohanty For LIC Chairperson's Position

Headhunting agency – Financial Services Institutions Bureau (FSIB) – on Thursday recommended Siddhartha Mohanty for the position of chairperson of India’s largest insurer Life Insurance Corporation (LIC).

Mohanty is already serving as the interim chairperson of the insurance behemoth for a period of three months, along with discharging his responsibilities as managing director (MD) of the corporation.

While his name has been recommended by this autonomous body, which was set up for the purpose of recommending persons for appointment as whole-time directors and non-executive chairpersons on the boards of financial services institutions, the final decision on the FSIB recommendation would be taken by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In a statement, FSIB said, it interfaced with four candidates on Thursday for the position of chairperson of LIC. “Keeping in view their performance in their interface, their overall experience and the extant parameters, the Bureau recommends Shri Siddhartha Mohanty for the position of Chairperson of LIC”, it said.

Earlier this month, ending protracted speculation, the central government appointed Mohanty as the interim chairperson of the corporation as MR Kumar’s tenure was expiring. Kumar had been serving as LIC chairperson since March 2019, and steered the corporation through the pandemic and its initial public offering (IPO).

Mohanty took over as the MD of LIC in February 2021 from T C Suseel Kumar. He is a veteran in the financial services industry with almost four decades of experience. He started his career as a direct recruit officer with LIC in 1985 and rose through the ranks. Before joining LIC Housing, Mohanty was the executive director at LIC in charge of the legal department of the insurer. In the corporation, Mohanty has worked in the areas of marketing, HR, investments, and legal. He has served as Chief of Investments (Monitoring), Regional Head of marketing vertical of LIC's Western Zone spanning the States of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa. He was also the senior Divisional Manager in-charge of Raipur and Cuttack divisions of LIC.

Mohanty is a post graduate in Political Science with a degree in law. He has also done his post-graduation in Business Management and is a Licentiate from the Insurance Institute of India.

Apart from Mohanty, who is the interim chairperson and the MD, Mini Ipe, M Jagannath, and Tablesh Pandey are holding the position of MD at the corporation. Generally, LIC has one chairperson and four MDs.