By Malini Bhupta
Madhavi Puri Buch believes nothing is impossible. She has just walked the talk by becoming the first woman in the corner office at the imposing headquarters of the Securities and Exchange Board of India in Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex. In the process, the so-called glass ceiling in India’s regulatory architecture has been shattered.
People close to her say what makes Buch unique is her ‘can-do’ spirit that helps her change gears seamlessly between her passion and her work. Apart from holding important positions in her professional career, she has done a whole lot of other things – from making a bunch of male CEOs walk the ramp for a charitable cause to organising leadership lecture series where the speaker list included the likes of Indra Nooyi, Ratan Tata, Kumar Mangalam Birla and Harish Manwani. Friends say she herself could easily have been a coveted speaker on the lecture circuit, given her interesting journey.
Technology is something that has been her lingua franca since her time at ICICI Bank. Her appointment comes at a time when technology is having a profound effect on businesses, markets and investing. The need of the hour is a regulator who is nimble and can keep pace with the sweeping changes. It is here that her past experience will come handy — at ICICI Bank, she set up back-office operations that linked hundreds of branches to better service customers. She also spearheaded the forward integration of the bank by creating products like online banking and trading for retail consumers. It helped that she started her career at the ICICI Bank with Nachiket Mor who was working on consumer technology as a differentiating tool at the private bank.
Lawyers, who have worked with her at Sebi where she was the wholetime member, say that she really understands technology and even called brokers to the regulator’s office to demonstrate how high frequency trades worked. Not surprising then she was on Sebi’s committee on technology.
At the start of the credit crisis, she moved mountains to protect investor interests by coming out with rules on side-pocketing so that investors did not have to take a haircut and mutual funds did not see a run on their funds if they were hit with defaults.
Like most good leaders, Buch is a good listener, too. Recalls one broker, who had once demonstrated to her and the committee how high frequency trading worked: “She is receptive to submissions and facts.”
Prior to her stint as CEO of ICICI Securities in 2009 when compatriot Chanda Kochhar became the CEO of ICICI Bank, Buch wore many hats at the bank, including one as the chief brand officer and executive director in charge of global markets business and transactions. She had replaced Kalpana Morparia on the bank’s board in 2007 after she was made executive director.
Her career trajectory has no particular pattern or order because she has been quick to adapt to her circumstances. When her husband was posted in the UK at Unilever, she was happy to teach there. Engaged at 18 and married at 21 to Dhaval Buch, she followed him in the initial years of the marriage and never thought twice about experimenting with different kinds of jobs despite her formidable academic achievements.
Buch’s advice to young women is to marry young and have children early so that they can focus on their careers when they really need to take on leadership roles. And whenever she and her husband had to live apart, she ensured that they were together during the weekends.
She credits her success to her son and husband, who she calls her friend, philosopher and guide. Many years ago, she said that what allowed her to go out and pursue her career was her son’s encouragement. He said he never had a problem with his mother being a working woman. That became her biggest strength, she often says.
Fortune, as they say, favours the brave. Buch was among the corporate leaders who were holed up in a Mumbai hotel during the terror attack in November 2008. Buch, who was then executive director at ICICI Bank, was at the hotel along with her husband, then a director at Hindustan Unilever, as the FMCG giant’s top management team was huddled in a board meeting there.
Markets have a good reason to cheer and fear, because unlike her predecessors Buch is in sync with the times and is fearless.
