Chanda Kochhar to succeed K V Kamath as CEO, ICICI Bank

19 December 2008

India's largest private-sector bank ICICI Bank today named its joint managing director Chanda Kochhar to succeed KV Kamath as CEO and managing director.

Kamath will take over as non-executive chairman on from 1 May 2009, a day after Kamath's retirement on 30 April 2009, for a 5-year term till 31 March 2014.

Kochhar heads the corporate centre of the bank since 2007 responsible for ensuring strategic consistency across the group, and is also the chief financial officer (CFO) and is the official spokesperson for ICICI Bank. In addition to finance, planning and communications; her responsibilities include the global treasury, principal investments and 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 (See: ICICI Bank elevates Chanda Kochhar as joint MD and CFO in top level promotions),

Kochhar was instrumental in establishing ICICI Bank during the 1990s, and subsequently headed the infrastructure finance and major clients groups in ICICI. In 2000, she took on the challenge of building the nascent retail business, with strong focus on technology, innovation, process reengineering and expansion of distribution and scale.

She successfully managed the integration of the retail franchises of ICICI and ICICI Bank, as well as of other acquisitions.