Deven Sharma

Deven Sharma (born 1956 in Jharkhand, India) was an executive, and the president of Standard & Poor's, a division ofS&P Global (formerlyThe McGraw-Hill Companies), providing independent credit ratings, indices, risk evaluation, and investment research. Mr. Sharma joined Standard & Poor's in 2006 as executive vice president, Investment Service and Global Sales. On August 23, 2011 he resigned. His successor is Douglas Peterson, former Chief Operating Officer of Citibank. Before joining Standard & Poor's, he was executive vice president, Global Strategy at The McGraw-Hill Companies for five years.

Early life and education

Dr. Deven Sharma was born in the mining town of Dhanbad in Bihar (now a part of Jharkhand), India. His father R. N. Sharma was chairman of Bharat Coking Coal Ltd., Dhanbad. Sharma did his schooling from De Nobili School, FRI, Digwadih, Dhanbad. He received his Bachelor's Degree from Birla Institute of Technology, Ranchi, India, a Master's Degree from University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and a Doctoral degree in Business Management from Ohio State University.

Career

Sharma worked with manufacturing companies, Dresser Industries and Anderson Strathclyde. After that he joined Booz Allen Hamilton where he worked for 14 years and led its strategy, operations performance, sales and marketing, and global expansion engagements for service-, marketing- and information-intensive companies. He left the company as a partner and joined McGraw-Hill in 2002. He served as Executive Vice President of Global Strategy of McGraw-Hill Companies Inc., from January 15, 2002 to October 2006 and as Executive Vice President of Investment Services and Global Sales of Standard & Poor's, from November 1, 2006. He was named president of Standard & Poor's in August 2007. In August 2011, he announced that he would step down from the position of president later in the year.

Sharma serves on the boards of CRISIL, The US-China Business Council and Asia Society Business Council. He served as a Director of 1-800-Flowers.com Inc. from May 12, 2005 to March 16, 2007. He has authored three publications: The Truth About Customer Solutions, Customer Solutions-Pilots to Profits, and Connecting the Demand Chain.

Deven Sharma became the public face of the firm in the wake of its historic downgrade of the United States' long-term debt rating on 5 Aug 2011. According to Reuters News Service, S&P announced on August 23, 2011 that Deven Sharma would step down as a Chief of Standard & Poor's effective September 12, 2011, and would leave the company by the end of the year.