Samsonite CEO Ramesh Dungarmal Tainwala has been replaced after he stepped down recently following accusations of falsely claiming to have a doctorate degree.
Tainwala has been replaced by Kyle Francis Gendreau, the Chief Financial Officer of the company.
“The Board of Directors of the Company announces that Mr. Ramesh Dungarmal Tainwala, citing personal reasons, has submitted his resignation from his employment with the Company and from his directorships within the Group. The Company and Mr. Tainwala are in discussions regarding arrangements in relation to his separation from the Company,” Samsonite International SA said in the statement on May 31.
Tainwala’s resignation came after Blue Orca Capital, a United States-based activist investment firm, published a report on May 24, claiming that he was referred to as “Dr. Ramesh Tainwala” in some American and Indian regulatory documents. The research report said Tainwala had falsely claimed that he earned a doctorate degree in business administration from Union Institute and University in Cincinnati, the Associated Press reported. The short-selling firm, Blue Orca, added that when it got in touch with the institution from which Tainwala received a doctorate — as per some biographical sources — the institution said that he had not got the degree, the New York Times reported.
The Blue Orca report also said that Samsonite was using accounting practices that were doubtful, to blow up its earnings and profits. Entities that were controlled by Tainwala and his family conducted business with Samsonite using methods that raised questions, the report said, according to the New York Times.
Samsonite said it considers the report to be “one-sided and misleading,” and added that the conclusions drawn in the report about the company and its financial results are incorrect. “Accordingly, the company urges shareholders to treat the report with caution,” the Hong Kong-listed firm said in a statement.
Prior to his appointment as Chief Executive Officer, Tainwala served as Samsonite’s Chief Operating Officer from March 2014 until September 2014. Tainwala, 58, became associated with Samsonite in the mid-1990s when he entered into a joint venture with the firm to manufacture quality luggage in India.
Tainwala, an alumnus of the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), Pilani, grew up in Ranchi, Forbes had reported earlier. He started as an entrepreneur in the plastic processing and consumer goods industries, including with Tainwala Chemicals and Plastics (India) Limited with which he was associated from 1985 to 2008.