Devitre: corporate finance

"Strategic financial thinkers are a rare breed and Dinny (Dinyar Devitre) is one of them.” Peter Georgescu, chairman emeritus of the accounting firm Young and Rubicam who said he has known Devitre for 15 years, was pronouncing on the latter’s suitability for his new assignment as chief financial officer (CFO) of America’s tobacco and food giant Philip Morris.

The rattling of financial skeletons in corporate America, post Enron, has cast a "heavy burden” on CFOs, Devitre acknowledged to Naazneen Karmali of Business India (January 6-19, 2003). But the man who not only cut his managerial teeth in the firm but headed its India operations in 1976, was president of its Asian region and presided over the company’s work in Japan, apart from a stint as its chief administrative officer in New York and, later, head of corporate planning, knows "every aspect of the business” and hence is well prepared for the task. His only spell away from Philip Morris was three "frustrating” years as Citibank’s head of consumer banking in Europe. "Financial services was not my scene,” he realized.

A non-smoker since the past 12 years, Devitre has a judicious approach to the company’s tobacco business. Whereas his Indian stint was complicated by the Emergency, FERA (Foreign Exchange Regulation Act), striking unions and excise cases, from his Hong Kong base as president of the Asian region he was to see sales of Marlboro, Philip Morris’ best selling cigarette, escalating. While he was in Japan the company’s profits rose from $ 150 million to $ 850 million. Confronted by advice that the company get out of its tobacco business when smoking has been judicially accepted as a health hazard, Devitre believes that "the solution is to manage it responsibly. We’re spending our resources on developing harm-reducing products and I am proud of that,” he told Karmali.

An MBA (1970) from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, Devitre’s 27 years with Philip Morris began with rotation through the various departments of its Indian subsidiary. Further orientation in Melbourne and a spell at the corporate headquarters in New York followed. By the time he was 29 and married to his business school sweetheart Ashish, the company had chosen him to head its Indian operation.

A golf addict, an "arm-chair mountain climber” with a taste for Oriental and Japanese food, Devitre was picked by outgoing and incoming CEOs of Philip Morris for his present assignment as CFO of the $ 79 billion corporation, notes the article. Georgescu confirms their choice of man: "His keen analytical ability combined with an exemplary personal integrity makes him very special in my book.”