Chanda Kochhar

Chanda Kochhar
Born	(1961-11-17) 17 November 1961 Jodhpur, India
Occupation	CEO and MD, ICICI Bank
Spouse(s)	Deepak Kochhar
Children	2

Chanda Kochhar (born 17 November 1961) is the managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO) of ICICI Bank. She is widely recognised for her role in shaping retail banking in India.^[1][2][3]

Early life

Kochhar was born in Jodhpur, Rajasthan and raised in Jaipur, Rajasthan. She was educated at St. Angela Sophia School, Jaipur. She then moved to Mumbai, where she joined Jai Hind College for a bachelor's degree. After graduating in 1982, she studied cost accountancy, and later acquired a master's degree in management studies from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai. She received the Wockhardt Gold Medal for Excellence in Management Studies as well as the J. N. Bose Gold Medal in Cost Accountancy.^[4]

Career

1984–1993

In 1984, Kochhar joined the Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India (ICICI)^[5] as a management trainee. During her early years at ICICI, she handled project appraisal and monitoring and evaluated projects in industries such as textile, paper and cement.^[4]

1993–2009

Kochhar was instrumental in establishing ICICI Bank during the 1990s. In 1993, Kochhar was appointed as one of the core team members who were assigned the responsibility of setting up the bank. She was promoted to assistant general manager in 1994 and then to deputy general manager in 1996. In 1996, Kochhar headed the newly formed Infrastructure Industry Group of ICICI Bank, which aimed to create dedicated industry expertise in the areas of power, telecom and transportation. In 1998, she was promoted as the General Manager and headed ICICI Bank's major client group, which handled relationships with ICICI's top 200 clients. In 1999, she also handled the strategy and e-commerce divisions of ICICI Bank. Under Kochhar's leadership, ICICI Bank started building the nascent retail business in 2000 focusing largely on technology, innovation, process engineering and expansion of distribution and scale.In April 2001, she took over as executive director.^[4] In 2006, Kochhar was appointed as deputy managing director of ICICI Bank. In 2006- 07, Kochhar handled the international and corporate businesses of the bank. From 2007 to 2009, she was the bank's chief financial officer (CFO) & joint managing director (JMD).^[6]

2009 to present

In 2009 Kochhar was appointed as managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO) of the bank and has been responsible for the bank’s diverse operations in India and overseas. ^[7] She also chairs the boards of most of the bank’s subsidiaries, which include India’s leading private sector life and general insurance companies.

Kochhar is a member of the India–Japan Business Leaders Forum and the US-India CEO Forum.^[8] She is the president of the International Monetary Conference, an organization that annually brings together the chief executives of approximately 70 of the world’s largest financial institutions from 30 countries, along with officials from government institutions.^[9] She is the deputy chairperson of the Indian Banks Association, and is on the boards of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations, National Institute of Securities Markets and Institute of International Finance. Kochhar has been a member of the Prime Minister’s Council on Trade & Industry, the Board of Trade and High-Level Committee on Financing Infrastructure. She was co-chair of the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in 2011.

Kochhar received an honorary doctorate from Carleton University, Canada in 2014,^[10] in recognition of her pioneering work in the financial sector, effective leadership in a time of economic crisis and support for engaged business practices. She was conferred with the Padma Bhushan, one of India's highest civilian honours, in 2011. ^[11]

Recognition

Under Kochhar's leadership, ICICI Bank won the "Best Retail Bank in India" award in 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2005 and "Excellence in Retail Banking Award" in 2002; both awards were given by The Asian Banker. Kochhar personally was awarded "Retail Banker of the Year 2004 (Asia-Pacific region)" by the Asian Banker, "Business Woman of the Year 2005" by The Economic Times and "Rising Star Award" for Global Awards 2006 by Retail Banker International. Kochhar has also consistently figured in Fortune's list of "Most Powerful Women in Business" since 2005.^[4] She climbed up the list debuting with the 47th position in 2005, moving up 10 spots to 37 in 2006 and then to 33 in 2007.^[12][13] In the 2008 list, Kochhar features at the 25th spot.^[14] In 2009, she debuted at number 20 in the Forbes "World's 100 Most Powerful Women list". She is the second Indian in the list behind the Indian National Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi at number 13.^[15] In 2010, she fell to number 92 in the Forbes list, but in 2011 bounced back to 43.^[16][17] As of 2014, she ranks at #43.^[18] And in 2015 she climbed up to #35 again.^[19]

Kochhar has also consistently figured in Fortune's list of "Most Powerful Women in Business" since 2005. In 2009, she debuted at number 20 in the Forbes "World's 100 Most Powerful Women list",^[20] and climbed to the 10th spot in 2010.^[21] In 2011, she featured in Business Today's list of the "Most Powerful Women – Hall of Fame".^[22] In 2011, she also featured in the "The 50 Most Influential People in Global Finance" List of Bloomberg Markets.^[23] Chanda Kochhar was awarded with ASSOCHAM Ladies League Mumbai Women of the Decade Achievers Award on 2 January 2014.^[24]

In 2011, Kochhar was awarded the "ABLF Woman of Power Award (India)" at the Asian Business Leadership Forum Awards.^[25]

Kochhar was ranked as the most powerful businesswoman in India in Forbes' list of 'The World's 100 Most Powerful Women 2013'.^[26] Kochhar was also featured in the Power List 2013 of 25 most powerful women in India by India Today, for the third year in a row.^[27]

Kochhar was selected in Time magazine's list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World 2015.^[28]

In 2015, Kochhar was ranked first in the Fortune List of 100 Most Powerful Women in Asia Pacific.^[29]

Kochhar ranked 40th on India Today’s ‘High and Mighty Power List 2016’ in 2016.^[30] In the same year, she was on the 22nd position in the Forbes Asia’s ‘50 Power Businesswomen List 2016’.^[31]

Personal life

Kochhar resides in Mumbai, and is married to Deepak Kochhar,^[32] a wind energy entrepreneur and her business schoolmate. They have two children, a daughter Aarti ^[33] and a son, Arjun.^{[4][15][34][35]}

References

External links

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