Ms. Chanda Kochhar, Joint Managing Director, ICICI Bank Limited

Ms. Chanda Kochhar is the Joint Managing Director of ICICI Bank Limited. Ms. Kochhar heads the Corporate Centre of the Bank, is the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and is also the official spokesperson for ICICI Bank. In addition to finance, planning and communications; her responsibilities include the global treasury, principal investments & trading, risk management and legal functions. She is also responsible for day-to-day guidance and administrative matters relating to compliance and internal audit functions.

Ms. Chanda Kochhar joined ICICI as a Management Trainee in 1984, after her Masters in Management Studies (Finance) from the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies. In the initial years she handled the basic core function in ICICI at that time, i.e. Project Appraisal and Monitoring. She handled projects in various industries like Petrochemicals, Textile, Paper and Cement.

In 1993 when ICICI decided to enter commercial banking, she was deputed to ICICI Bank as a part of the core team to set up the bank. This involved conceptualizing the entire strategic direction for the Bank, including

• Devising the retail and corporate strategy
• Deciding on the branch roll out strategy
• Deciding on the technology architecture of Bank and selection of software

She was promoted to Assistant General Manager in 1994 and then Deputy General Manager in 1996. ICICI set up the Infrastructure Industry Group in 1996 to create dedicated industry expertise in the areas of Power, Telecom and Transportation and she was made in charge of the Infrastructure Industry Group. In 1998 ICICI created a “Major Client Group” to handle the relationships with the top 200 clients of ICICI. She was promoted as the General Manager and was made the head of the Major Clients Group. This meant building cross-divisional teams from within the ICICI Group and marketing the entire gamut of ICICI Group's products to these large clients. This set the base for cross-selling in the Group and also this was the first time ICICI made big entries with the large Navratna Public Sector Units. In the year 1999 she simultaneously started handling the Strategy and E-commerce divisions of ICICI.

Ms Kochhar was instrumental in setting up and scaling up the Retail business for ICICI Bank. In July 2000, under the leadership of Ms. Kochhar, ICICI Bank entered the Retail business and within a short span of around 5 years, the Bank emerged as the largest retail financer in India. Under her leadership, the Retail banking business of ICICI Bank grew many folds and the Bank has established itself as a clear “Leader” in Car Finance, Home Finance, Card business and Two Wheeler & Commercial Vehicle Loans.

In the process of transforming a small bank into the largest private sector bank in the country, within a decade of its inception, the various steps taken by Ms. Kochhar also shaped the retail finance industry in India. Few such path-breaking initiatives included launch of electronic channels in banking, developing a large network of Direct Sales Agents, setting up Bancassurance model of ICICI Bank and using the concept of cross sell by using various channels. In April 2001, she took over as Executive Director, heading the retail business in ICICI Bank.

In April 2006, she was appointed as Deputy Managing Director of ICICI Bank, with responsibility for both Corporate and Retail banking business of ICICI Bank and from October 2006 to October 2007, she was handling the International and Corporate businesses of ICICI Bank.

International banking is one of the fastest growing businesses in the Bank aiming to cater to the cross-border needs of clients. The Bank has established strong customer relationships by offering a comprehensive product suite, technology enabled access for overseas customers, a wide distribution network in India and alliances with local banks in various markets.

Corporate Banking business, comprising of entire gamut of financial products to suit the growing needs of Corporate sector is also poised for a new wave of growth.

Under the leadership of Ms. Kochhar the Bank has won several prestigious awards:

As recognition of her contribution to establish ICICI Bank as a leading player in the banking industry Ms. Kochhar has been:

Ms Kochhar was born on November 17, 1961, in Jodhpur, Rajasthan where she spent most of her early years. Ms Kochhar joined Jaihind College for a Bachelors Degree in Arts. After graduating from JaiHind College in 1982, Ms. Kochhar completed her MBA and Cost Accountancy. She did her Masters in Management Studies from the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai. She topped her batch and received the Wockhardt Gold Medal for Excellence in Management Studies. In Cost Accountancy she received the J. N. Bose Gold Medal for highest marks in that year. Ms Kochhar presently resides in Mumbai and is married and has a daughter and a son.

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