Committee contribution
Chair and member readiness| Capacity | Committees |
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| Ready to join | Technology and operational-risk oversight, where the company's committee structure provides for it |
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Capacity and preferences
- Time available
- 22 days per year
- Current directorships
- 0
- Sectors
- Industrial services · Engineering-support businesses · Specialist business-software services
- Company type
- Privately held operating companies with a substantive need for technology-dependence oversight
- Company stage
- Established businesses reassessing computing commitments, service continuity or a material application transition
The seat I am pursuing
I am considering one first external non-executive role, subject to the company determining the appropriate category and my eligibility. Twenty-two days is a provisional annual planning allowance, not an unconditional promise that covers every crisis, travel requirement or induction demand. I would prefer to join relevant technology or operational-risk discussions rather than seek a committee chair position at the outset. The role should value thoughtful challenge and learning, with an agreed calendar and an honest understanding of the time required alongside my continuing CIO responsibilities.
Board and committee exposure
Presented to the Board or a committee
Orelvi Design Computing
Board discussions on computing investment and service dependence
July 2020 – Present
I explain the scope, cost and limitations of material computing proposals to directors when invited. The subscription review separated thirteen cancellations from twenty-eight reassignments; the reconstruction review identified two environments that remained blocked. I answer questions as the responsible executive and then implement the approved decision through management. This exposure has helped me understand the need for a concise account of assumptions and unresolved obligations. It is not prior service as a director, membership of a board committee or evidence that I have exercised independent oversight of my own proposals.
Governance learning and readiness
IICA Independent Directors’ Databank: Registered
In this fictional record I registered with India’s independent directors databank in February 2026. My assessment remains to be completed; no exemption is asserted in this record. I am studying the required material alongside broader governance learning and would verify that my status and any applicable obligations are current when an opportunity is considered. Registration is a preparation step; it is not an appointment, an assurance of suitability or a completed eligibility decision for a particular company.
- I have been studying the distinction between directors' collective oversight and an executive's delegated operating authority. In practice, that means asking management to explain a technology dependency without taking over its supplier discussions or prescribing a configuration from the board table. My notes include how a director should challenge an incomplete account while respecting the responsibility of the people who must deliver the service.
- My preparation also covers financial statements, related-party questions and the role of board committees. I am learning to connect technology commitments with liquidity, contractual exposure and the company's business model rather than present them as a specialist subject outside ordinary governance. I do not describe this study as an accounting qualification or claim readiness to chair an audit committee.
My contribution to a board
I could help a board examine whether management's technology account distinguishes a paid entitlement from usable capacity, a retained file from a recoverable environment, and a retirement milestone from an accepted business transition. Those questions become useful when connected to the company's obligations and economics. I would ask for a clear population, a credible comparison and an owner for what remains unresolved. My contribution would be strongest alongside directors with complementary financial, sector and legal experience. I would also expect to learn the company's operating context before assuming that a method used at Orelvi should be applied unchanged elsewhere. For example, a business with intermittent specialist work may sensibly retain capacity that looks quiet in a monthly report. I would ask how management has evaluated that requirement and how often it revisits the assumption. The purpose of challenge is to improve the decision, not to reward the largest reduction in a technology budget irrespective of the service consequence.
Judgement in practice
01A smaller saving that the board could rely on
The subscription review could have produced an attractive but misleading headline by adding the value of twenty-eight reassigned seats to thirteen cancelled renewals. I kept the categories separate: ₹39 lakh annual expense reduction came from the cancellations, while reassignment improved use of entitlements the company continued to pay for. As a director I would look for the same clarity in a management proposal, asking which part changes cash commitments and which part changes allocation. I would not redo every licence decision myself or assume the contract terms of another company match ours. I would also ask whether the saving begins in the period used by the financial forecast and whether transition expense has been included. These are questions about the integrity of the investment account, which directors can ask without needing to become specialists in every software product.
02A recovery test that remained incomplete
After ₹62 lakh corrective work, twenty-two of twenty-four historic environments could be rebuilt and two remained blocked. I supported retaining that limitation in the report, even though commercial colleagues preferred a complete recovery claim. A board should understand the significance of the remaining cases, the lawful alternatives and the business obligations at risk. It should also recognise the limit of the test: restoring a computing environment does not approve the engineering output. That distinction is central to the kind of challenge I could contribute without claiming authority beyond my experience. A useful response would identify the consequence of each remaining block and the person responsible for deciding what happens next. I would be wary of a programme that closed its report because most cases passed while leaving the commercially significant exception without an owner or a decision date.
My first year on a board
I would begin by understanding the company's customers, economic model and material computing dependencies. I would read the existing investment and risk papers, meet the responsible executives through the agreed induction process and learn where evidence is already strong before asking for more reporting. During the first year I would focus on a small number of consequential questions: whether material commitments have clear owners, whether recovery claims have been tested for the intended purpose, and whether planned retirements preserve necessary business work. I would review my contribution with the chair and remain alert to the danger of turning familiar technical experience into excessive operational involvement. I would want the induction to include a discussion of previous decisions that did not work as intended, since those often reveal more about reporting quality than a tour of successful projects. My early contribution should improve the board’s understanding of management’s evidence and assumptions, not simply increase the volume of technical material in its papers.
Conflicts and their management
Orelvi's customers, suppliers, investors and commercial relationships would need to be compared with the proposed company's interests. I would disclose relevant personal and family connections as well as my employment obligations. A recurring conflict that removed me from the central technology discussion could make an appointment unsuitable even if individual recusals were possible. I would seek employer clearance and agree confidentiality boundaries before receiving sensitive papers. This sample cannot establish the outcome of a real conflict review; the relevant facts must be examined for each opportunity and revisited when relationships change. I would also consider whether the appointment creates an expectation that I can introduce customers, negotiate with a current supplier or disclose methods developed in my executive role. Those expectations should be discussed openly at the outset. A board contribution should not depend on using relationships or knowledge that I am not free to bring to the company.
My independence statement
I hold no directorship and would assess eligibility and independence against the specific company's circumstances before accepting an appointment. My employment, commercial relationships, financial interests and relevant family connections would need disclosure and review. I understand that the Companies Act and, where applicable, listed-company requirements impose conditions that executive experience alone cannot satisfy. I would have the company and appropriate advisers establish the applicable position, including any committee requirements and limits on appointments. A technically relevant background is a contribution to consider, not a substitute for that review or a claim that I qualify for every board.