Ratings Agency Standard & Poor’s President Devan Sharma to step down by end of 2011

Ratings agency Standard & Poor declared on 22 August 2011 that Deven Sharma, president of the agency would step down from the designation by end of 2011. Sharma had turned into a public face of the rating agency following its historic downgrade on U.S. continuing debt rating.

Sharma’s decision to resign came at a time when Standard & Poor’s  is under immense pressure from a number of fronts, that includes  the Justice Department which held an inquiry about its ratings of mortgage securities and lot of stress is given by the activist investors to disintegrate its parent company.

Sharma had joined S&P in 2006 as executive vice-president, Investment Services and Global Sales, and later was named president in 2007. Before joining S&P, he served as the executive vice-president, Global Strategy, at the McGraw-Hill Companies for five years.

Douglas Peterson, a top executive at Citigroup was chosen to replace Sharma as president of Standard & Poor.