Chartered appointed Mr. Baskara Rao, vice president and chief information officer (CIO), in July 2007. In this role, Mr. Rao manages the company's global information technology (IT) and is responsible for driving Chartered's strategic initiative to establish an IT business systems network for supporting the business requirements of customers, partners, suppliers and employees. He reports directly to the president & CEO.

Mr. Rao brings more than 18 years of IT expertise to Chartered. Previously, Mr. Rao served as CIO for Philips Lighting Asia Pacific based in Hong Kong, with responsibility for IT excellence in the Asia Pacific region. Mr. Rao managed several key projects, driving improvement processes contributing to efficiency in operational and IT spend.

Mr. Rao holds a Bachelor of Science (Computer) from the University Science of Malaysia, and an MBA from Herriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK.