Chanda Kochhar: A look at the career and controversial exit of ICICI Bank CEO and MD

Kochhar was born in Jodhpur, Rajasthan in 1961 where she spent most of her early years. Kochhar joined Jai Hind College in Mumbai for a Bachelors Degree in Arts. After graduating in 1982, she studied cost accountancy from Institute of Cost Accountants of India.

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 JN Bose Gold Medal for highest marks in that year.

Kochhar joined the erstwhile ICICI Limited in 1984 as a management trainee. 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 the company decided to venture into the commercial banking sector, Kochhar was deputed with ICICI Bank. She was promoted to Assistant General Manager in 1994 and then Deputy General Manager in 1996.

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. In the year 1999, she simultaneously started handling the Strategy and e-commerce divisions of ICICI.

In July 2000, under the leadership of Kochhar, ICICI Bank entered the retail business and within a short span of around 5 years, the Bank emerged as one of the largest retail financer in India. 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. She was elevated as the Managing Director & CEO of ICICI Bank in 2009.

Kochhar is currently a member of various boards which include the Indian Banks Association, IIIT Vadodara, National Institute of Securities Markets and Institute of International Finance. She is also a member of the Prime Minister’s Council on Trade & Industry, the Board of Trade and High-Level Committee on Financing Infrastructure.

Kochhar, though currently in the news for the wrong reasons, has won many prestigious awards in her illustrious career which include Padma Bhushan. She has also been ranked as most powerful women and professional by multiple publications which include Forbes, Fortune, CNBC TV18, etc.

On January 30, a panel headed by Justice BN Srikrishna indicted former MD and CEO Chanda Kochhar for violating the bank's code of conduct in the Videocon loan case. Following the report, the bank's board said it will treat her separation as 'termination for cause' under their internal policies.

Chanda Kochhar said she is "disappointed, hurt and shocked" by ICICI Bank's decision to treat her resignation as a "termination for cause". Kochhar said she served the ICICI group for 34 long years "with all my dedication and hard work" and the bank's latest decision has caused her "immense hurt and pain".