ITC inducts Meera Shankar in its board as the first women ever

Meera Shankar, who was India's ambassador to the US from 2009 to 2011, will join theboard of ITC Ltd as the first women director. She will be an additional non-executive director of the cigarettes-FMCG-hotel major. This can be said as a major breakthrough in ITC in terms of gender diversity, for the company never had any women representation in the board and even in the top management. 

The lack of women in senior management at ITC was to some extent due to the company's focus on the cigarette business where women professionals had inhibitions to work. However, company officials say the situation is fast changing now that ITC is focusing majorly on personal care, packaged food, hotel and paper business. ITC's non-cigarette businesses in 2011-12 contributed as much as 57% of net segment revenue of the company. 

Shankar's appointment was cleared in ITC's board meeting on July 27, the company informed the Bombay Stock Exchange. She was India's second female ambassador to the US. Shankar, who is an Indian Foreign Service officer of the 1973 batch, was succeeded by Nirupama Rao last year August. 

The board also re-appointed a former ITC senior executive, SSH Rehman as an additional non-executive director of the company. Rehman was a full-time director and was heading the company's hotel and food business before retiring in March 2009. Rehman had played a key role in expanding ITC's hotel business during the early years.