Gone are the days where only men should handle money and women should do the cooking and household chores. Now with digitalization and technological advancements, the state of women’s entrepreneurship has taken a positive shift. Also, women have become tech-savvy and financially independent too, by running online businesses from their own place.
Best of all, even many top MNC companies are run by women and have crossed many milestones for their organizations. Celebrating International Women’s Day, we picked these four Indian women achievers from the country’s banking and financial sector who have contributed immensely to the industry’s growth stories.
1. Ashu Suyash
She’s the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of CRISIL, a subsidiary of S&P Global and an Indian credit rating agency company. Her previous stint was the Chief Executive Officer of L&T Investment Management Ltd, and Ashu is the only woman to lead Asia’s biggest asset management company.
Being one of the top powerful leading businesswomen in the male-dominated industry, she also balances her family of two grown-up daughters and her husband very well. Post her stint with L&T, she moved to Citibank and now heads CRISIL.
Leading such powerful companies and managing a family is not an easy task for any woman, but she does it with ease. No wonder why she’s a great influencer for the upcoming entrepreneurs and business leaders. Fortune India Magazine ranked her 11th in 2019 and 9th in 2020 as the Most Powerful Women.
2. Madhabi Puri Buch
An MBA graduate from IIM Ahmedabad, Madhabi worked with an NGO for a year and then joined ICICI Bank. In between, she took three years of sabbatical for her family and rejoined ICICI bank in 1997. Under her leadership, home loans have witnessed a surge by four times, and her contributions made her the leader in mutual fund distribution.
From 2006-2009, she served as the Executive Director for ICICI Bank. Later, she climbed up the corporate ladder and became the MD & CEO of ICICI Securities and held the position during the period of 2009-2011.
Having more than a decade of experience, she later went on to serve at several other leadership positions. Some of which are CEO at Agora Advisory Services from 2013-2017, Non-Executive Director for Zensar Technologies and InnoVen Capital India Pvt Ltd, and Max Healthcare for 2 years.
In 2017, Madhabi Puri Buch was appointed as a new whole-time member of SEBI, and she’s the first female to take charge of that position. Because generally, SEBI appoints professionals from the public sector, IAS, and RBI, but her entry has broken the glass ceiling, and she once again proved that sky’s the limit for women.
3. Shanti Ekambaram
For those who don’t know about this dynamic woman, she’s now the Group President of Consumer Banking & Member of Group Management Council at Kotak Mahindra Bank. Having associated with Kotak for over 27 years, she has rich expertise in several departments like Capital Markets, M&As, Fixed Income, Syndication & Advisory, Corporate Banking & Consumer & Retail Banking, etc.
Being active on the digital front, she has improved the customer base by launching the idea of the 811 account, the first zero-balance savings account with null charges. Despite COVID-19, she kept 95 percent of the branches running across the country.
Under her headship, Kotak has witnessed spectacular numbers in all the digital mediums. Fortune Magazine ranked her 25th in the Most Powerful Women list of 2020.
4. Shivani Bhasin Sachdeva
Having 18 years of private equity experience in hand, Shivani started India Alternatives in 2009 (MD & CEO). Completed her BA from Mount Holyoke College, Massachusetts, and MBA from Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania, she served her expertise at top firms like GE Equity, Lightyear Capital, and IDFC Private Equity, where she looked after several departments like investments, managing portfolios, dealing with private equity, etc. She also held the position as an Independent Director at Emaar India.