Chanda Kochhar to be next ICICI Bank CEO and MD
ICICI Bank finally announced that Chanda Kochhar is to be the next Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of the bank for a five year term starting May 01, 2009.
She will take over from K.V Kamath, one of the giants of the banking industry, who will become the non-executive Chairman, while another doyen, N.Vaghul, the present non-executive Chairman, will retire from the board on April 30, 2009.
For Kochhar, this has been a meteoric rise – from management trainee in 1984 to CEO & MD in 2008. From 2007 till now, she was CFO and Joint MD. Though along expected lines, things were probably not all that clear a couple of years ago, with Kalpana Morparia and Nachiket Mor also touted as likely successors to Kamath. However, their exit from ICICI Bank probably made it easier for the ICICI board to appoint Kochhar, who, at 46, is reasonably young and has ample time on her side.
Considering all the storms the bank has had to weather this year on account of the financial meltdown, the subprime crisis, and a malicious SMS campaign, she will certainly need all that time to get the bank back on an even footing in order to take on their competitors.
