-
Government Headhunter Fails to Find BPCL CEO
After HPCL, the government headhunter struggled to find a suitable candidate for the top job at Bharat Petroleum, as most applicants were narrow specialists lacking multidisciplinary experience needed to run a large organisation.
The Public Enterprise Selection Board (PESB) last month interviewed a dozen candidates including BPCL Director (Finance) Vetsa Ramakrishna Gupta and its Director (Refineries) S Khanna but found none suitable for the job of chairman and managing director of Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL), according to a PESB order.
It advised the administrative ministry “to choose an appropriate course of further action for selection including the search cum selection committee,” according to the order.
Incumbent G Krishnakumar superannuates as chairman and managing director of BPCL on April 30 this year.
BPCL is the fourth company in the oil sector where PESB couldn’t find a suitable candidate since 2021. PESB in May 2023 did not make any recommendation for the top post at Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and the task was then entrusted to a search cum selection committee. That panel picked Arvindar Singh Sahney who was appointed chairman of IOC in November 2024.
In June last year, PESB interviewed eight candidates, including a director on HPCL board and managing director of Indraprastha Gas Ltd, for the post of chairman and managing director at HPCL but rejected them all.
HPCL top position has been lying vacant since August 31, 2024, when Pushp Kumar Joshi superannuated.
Previously in June 2021, PESB reached a similar conclusion while looking for a candidate for the top job at Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC). A year later, a search-cum-selection committee picked Arun Kumar Singh, the former chairman and managing director of BPCL, for that job.
Share This
