BW Most Influential Woman Of India: Zarin Daruwala, CEO, Standard Chartered Bank
Zarin Daruwala was appointed as a CEO of Standard Chartered Bank in 2016. With a background in Accountancy, she has been a gold medalist Company Secretary along with a successful Chartered Accountant.
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Zarin Daruwala joined the leading bank while it was facing various issues, she turned the way around the things in the bank bring it back on track. The need of the hour was to refurbish the engines of growth while maintaining the asset quality. While catering to these needs, she had to also increase the modes of revenue including retail banking along with leading the bank through the competitive banking realm of the country. “These were significant changes for any organisation. But we made them. I persisted in making sure everyone was aligned to what we were trying to do and it is very fulfilling to see that the persistence is bearing fruit. This has steadily helped build the credibility of the top team, and grown our confidence in completing the last mile. Internal campaigns were launched to reward and recognise employees - contests on innovative ideas to customer service awards (and focus on service parameters) were initiated to strengthen internal engagement levels - and drive our agenda further and deeper”, she said during an interview.
Chartered Accountants of India had also awarded her with CA Business Achiever Award. During her reign at Standard Chartered, the bank saw the flourishing increase of headcount by 6.7%. This led to increase in current and savings account balance by 21%. She has led the bank brilliantly while bringing in profits while keeping her employees happy as well. Prior to Standard Chartered, she was a President at ICICI along with ICICI Lombard, ICICI Securities and JSW Steel as well. Zarin has around 28 years of experience in managing people and business. She considers her never say die attitude and strive for perseverance as the most essential traits that has helped her pave through her professional life.
Zarin started the first rural ATM of ICICI in India through her immense hard work and effort to turn around loan and reimbursement of farmers and various other path-breaking work. She considered her self-belief as her talisman.