 A year later, he quit the job when the Lalit Kala Akademi, Chennai was established to work as its founder secretary; during his tenure, the academy was a meeting point for the Chennai-based artists and this was known to have served as an inspiration for the formation of Cholamandal Artists' Village, of which he was also a founder member.Later, he moved to the New Delhi office of the academy in 1996 for a two year stint and it was during this time he came in touch with M. K. K. Nair, the visionary civil servant, with whom he was involved in the organization of the "All India Writers’ Conference" in Aluva.Nair, who headed the Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore Limited (FACT) during those days, invited Devan as an art consultant with Fact Engineering and Design Organisation (Fedo), a division of FACT and he worked for FACT till 1972, a year after Nair left the company to take up the position of a joint secretary at the Planning Commission of India.