Hyderabad: Grapevine in business circles about the succession issue at Dr Reddy's Laboratories appears to be coming true as Satish Reddy, the son of Anji Reddy, has taken over as the chairman of India's second largest drug maker.
“It (the board of directors) has appointed Satish Reddy as chairman of the Board. He previously held the position of vice-chairman, managing director and chief operating officer. G.V. Prasad will continue as the CEO and provide leadership to the company in an executive role. Mr Prasad has also been appointed as the co-chairman and managing director,” the Hyderabad-based drug maker said after annou-ncing its financial results on Tuesday.
Speculation about Dr Anji Reddy’s successor had become a hot topic in the pharma industry after the founder went into a semi-retirement. The Anji Reddy-led board had maintained a balance of power, by equally distributing executive roles between founder son Satish and son-in-law Prasad.
While Mr Prasad was vice-chairman and CEO. Satish Reddy was made MD and COO. After the death of Dr Reddy, Mr Prasad being the vice-chair went on to head the board as chairman and CEO, while Satish became vice-chairman, MD, and COO.
According to insiders at Dr Reddy’s, Mr Prasad was known to be a visionary, while Satish was a go-getter with strong grip on the execution.
Even Dr Anji Reddy had tried to skip questions on succession in his time. “They (Mr Prasad and Mr Satish) are looking for a better CEO, so that they can relax a little bit. So, where is the question of succession?”, Dr Anji Reddy had told this newspaper during an interview.
In sync with his statement, DRL on Tuesday appears to have appointed global generics president Abhijit Mukherjee as chief operating officer, who would be responsible for the day-to-day affairs.
