Reference: GILA/ID/TECH-038/GRID
Board seat: Independent Director, Non-Executive
Primary board location: New Delhi with control-centre and storage-site reviews
Meeting model: Five boards, quarterly risk and annual black-start/cyber exercise
Mandate type: Risk, Cybersecurity, Technology & AI Director
Status: Confidential live-search specification; client identity released only after conflict clearance and NDA.
The anonymised enterprise
A listed operator of renewable integration, battery-storage and grid-balancing assets contracted to utilities and large industrial customers.
Operational portfolio exceeds 2 GW/5 GWh across several states. Remote control systems, OEM firmware and market-dispatch interfaces create cyber-physical risk alongside revenue volatility.
The board problem and strategic reason for appointment
The board needs technology risk translated into safety, grid availability and contract consequences. The director must challenge control-system segregation and vendor access without attempting to operate the control room.
The board is not buying a credential. It is appointing an independent decision-maker who can convert this problem into a governed sequence of choices, evidence and accountability. Success will be judged by the quality of decisions and control improvement, not by the number of recommendations made.
Board position, authority and interfaces
Chair of Technology/Operational Risk; Investment Committee member for new storage platforms; direct access to OT security and grid operations.
The appointee will have direct, unfiltered access to the Company Secretary and to the relevant control-function leaders. Any advisory support requested by the board must remain management-executed: the director sets questions, tolerances and evidence standards, but does not become an executive or consultant.
First 12–18 month strategic charter
- Define critical OT assets, recovery tolerances and safe manual modes; test vendor remote access, firmware provenance and IT/OT segmentation; rehearse ransomware plus grid-event decision-making with utility communications; govern battery-management analytics, thermal-runaway detection and revenue-model integrity
- Translate technical risk into board decisions: risk appetite, investment priorities, accountable owners, recovery tolerances and customer consequences—not dashboards of vulnerabilities or model counts.
- Require independent testing of the severe-but-plausible scenario, including executive decision rehearsal, evidence preservation, regulatory/customer communication and recovery of critical services.
Decision profile sought
Essential evidence
- Power-system, grid operations, OT cyber, storage or mission-critical infrastructure leader; board risk experience; incident judgement
Differentiators
- Control-room operations, black-start, battery safety or national critical-infrastructure policy exposure
GILA will assess board-level technology judgement, operational resilience, adversarial questioning and enough technical depth to challenge management without becoming a shadow CIO or CISO. Candidates should expect a case discussion based on an ambiguous board decision from this mandate, not a career-history interview alone.
Independence, suitability and downside diligence
The search will apply Section 149(6), Sections 164–165, Schedule IV and the applicable listing or sector rules to the entity’s legally verified status at the appointment date. Databank/proficiency status, listed-entity directorship and committee ceilings, pecuniary relationships, relatives’ interests, recent audit/advisory work and interlocking directorships will be checked. The appointment is subject to formal legal and secretarial confirmation; this posting is not a substitute for that determination.
Mandate-specific screens: OEM, aggregator, utility procurement or security-vendor ties; competing storage developer board; access that would compromise critical-system confidentiality.
Before accepting the seat, the candidate will receive under NDA the latest board composition, committee charters, material litigation/regulatory schedule, related-party map, last audited accounts, current D&O policy and the specific risk papers necessary to make an informed liability assessment.
Twelve-month outcomes
The board expects a board that knows which digital failures can threaten the enterprise, what tolerances apply and whether recovery claims have been independently tested. For this particular seat, the evidence will be:
- Critical OT inventory and owner map verified; recovery/manual modes demonstrated; cyber-physical and revenue scenarios tested with corrective actions
Commitment, protection and economics
- Expected load: 22–28 days annually and emergency availability.
- Terms: Five-year term; chair fee; cyber, environmental, business-interruption and D&O cover.
- Protection: Appointment letter, deed of indemnity where legally available, appropriate D&O cover including discovery/run-off terms, access to independent advice under the board-approved protocol, and complete minuting of dissent.
- Equity: No stock options where the appointment is legally an independent-director seat subject to Section 149(9). Any private-company structure outside that perimeter will be expressly classified and separately advised; no equity is implied by this posting.
Search process
Conflict pre-clearance → GILA/SYMPHONY™ board-fit interview → mandate case → document-led diligence under NDA → references from board peers and control functions → NRC/owner interviews → statutory, regulatory and reputation checks → board recommendation. Candidate consent, disclosures and appointment approvals will follow the law and the entity’s constitutional documents.