Chitra Ramkrishna Quits NSE

Chitra Ramkrishna unexpectedly quit as chief executive officer of National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Friday, ending her 24-year career at the country's largest bourse that she helped found. Ramkrishna, who took over as head of the exchange in 2013, quit due to personal reasons, NSE said in a press release after a board meeting. J Ravichandran, group president, will be in charge till the board appoints a new CEO, it said.
While there was speculation about Ramkrishna's differences with some NSE board members, the timing of her resignation came as a shock to the investors and market participants. Ramkrishna could not immediately be reached for comment.
Her exit could result in a delay in NSE's upcoming initial public offering (IPO) though exchange sources said listing plans are on track. NSE had planned to file for a share sale later in December. Rival Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) too is in the process of launching its IPO. While bankers to the issue said they were uncertain whether NSE would go ahead with the listing now, private equity investors who plan to exit weren't too pleased.
NSE has been under pressure from PE investors to list at the earliest. They said the valuation of their holding had hardly moved despite profits growing over the past few years.
The resignation comes on the heels of the exit of NSE's chief operating officer (COO) Subramanian Anand, who left the organisation in October. NSE will set up a four-member selection committee to select the new MD and CEO.NSE non-executive vice chairman Ravi Narain, TV Mohandas Pai and Ashok Chawla will be part of this panel, a source said.
A chartered accountant by qualification, Ramkrishna began her career in the project finance department of Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI). After a stint with the term lender and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), she was picked by RH Patil--regarded as the founding father of NSE--to set up the exchange as a rival to BSE.NSE non-executive vice chairman Ravi Narain, BSE CEO Ashish Kumar Chauhan, K Kumar and Raghavan Putran were the others assigned the task of starting the bourse from scratch. It would eventually overtake BSE in volume trade.
Ramkrishna's ascent to the top post in NSE was steady in an overwhelmingly male-dominated industry. In 2009, NSE appointed Ramkrishna as joint managing director and in 2013, she took over from Narain as CEO.