Rallis has appointed Veeramani Shankar as the new executive director at its board. Shankar joined Rallis on December 1, 2005, and had worked with Tata Chemicals, Phosphates, Haldia, as chief operating officer. Prior to that, he was with Hindustan Lever from 1986 to 2004. While in HLL, he served in various capacities in the commercial division and was also responsible for the seeds business. Shankar is a chartered accountant, cost accountant, company secretary as well as a law graduate.

Rallis also announced the addition of two independent non-executive directors. Dr S Ramanathan is a distinguished scientist, holds a PhD from UDCT and did his post-doctoral work at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. He worked in Sandoz till 1994 when he retired as vice president of R&D, Projects, QA and safety. He was also adjunct professor of the University of Mumbai and IIT, Powai where he guided students for MSc and PhD degrees in chemistry.

Prakash Rastogi was till recently, the vice chairman and managing director of Clariant India Ltd. He is an MSc (Tech) from Bombay University and holds a PG Diploma in Business Management. He worked with Sandoz India from 1974 till 1994 when he was vice president and head of the chemicals division before it was de-merged to become clariant.

Bharat Vasani joins as a non-independent, non-executive director and is the group general counsel for the Tata Group. He has been with Tata Sons since December 2000. With over 28 years experience as a corporate lawyer at senior management levels, he has worked with Phillips, NOCIL and Dow Chemical, USA.

Ram S Tarneja whose term as an independent non-executive Director is ending on March 2007 will step down from the board. He has been on the board of Rallis since May 1985.

Russi Jal Taraporevala, an independent non-executive director who has been on the board since September 1988, has now stepped down.