Kathmandu. Government-owned life insurer, National Life Insurance Company, has got its first CEO. The company’s board of directors held a meeting on Tuesday and decided to appoint banker Sundar Panthi as the CEO from among the shortlisted candidates in an open competition.
According to company secretary Bholanath Ghimire, the board of directors has taken the decision regarding Panthi’s appointment in accordance with Section 57 of the Insurance Act 2079 BS. The board of directors will have to submit information related to Panthi’s appointment, including a fit and proper test, to the regulatory Nepal Insurance Authority within seven days.
After 16 months of its transformation from an institution to a company, the only government-owned life insurance company has finally got a chief executive. In the second call for applications by the company, Panthi and Mahesh Rimal, Rajunath Khanal and Ramdev Yadav were shortlisted along with them from the first round. After the presentation by the filling committee last Friday, their oral interviews were conducted on Saturday the next day. Yadav was eliminated from the presentation phase.
The government, Nepal Rastra Bank and Nepal Bank Limited own shares in the National Life Insurance Company. The Board of Directors also includes representatives of the Government of Nepal and both these banks.
The then National Insurance Corporation was converted into a company in 2080 Kartik due to the mandatory provisions of the Insurance Act 2079. With the conversion into a company, the tenure of Administrator Kavi Pathak ended. Since then, Deputy General Manager Mahesh Rimal has taken over as the acting Chief Executive Officer.
Sundar Panthi is a first-class officer of Nepal Bank. He was handling the responsibility of the bank’s operations department as the bank’s chief manager. Panthi, whose permanent address is Arghakhanchi, has obtained MA and MBA degrees from Tribhuvan University.
Rimal, the Deputy General Manager in the competition, is a Chartered Accountant. He had joined the service of the previous institution directly from the post of Assistant Administrator. He has completed his higher education from Mumbai University and has also obtained the title of Chartered Accountant from India.
