New Delhi, Feb. 6, : Former President of The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) Kiran Karnik was appointed as the chairman of Satyam Computers Services Ltd. on Friday.

The decision of Karnik's appointment came a day after appointment of A. S. Murthy as its new chief executive officer. Karnik would be the chairman of Satyam's six-member board.

The Government had initially constituted the board of Satyam with three members including Karnik, Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) chairman Deepak Parekh and past presiding officer of Securities Appellate Tribunal C. Achutan.

The government later expanded the board of Satyam by nominating three more members including Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) chief mentor Tarun Das, Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) nominee S Balakrishna Mainak and past president of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), T. N. Manoharan.

Karnik was NASSCOM President in 2001-02 and earlier held several key positions in the IT sector. He has also served as managing director of Discovery Network in the country.

In his career, spanning over three decades, Karnik has been conferred many awards and accolades. He has been awarded the Padma Shri award in 2007. Business Week named Karnik as one of the `Stars of Asia' in 2004.

He was also selected as Forbes magazine's `Face of the Year 2003', for being a driving force behind India's off shoring wave. (ANI)