Back where he belongs
Gunit Chadha learned the ropes on Wall Street, and is putting that education to good use on Dalal Street.
If Gunit Chadha was not heading a bank, this son of an army officer could as well have become a colonel or brigadier. A motorcycle accident on the day of the physical exam for the National Defence Academy ensured he ended up graduating from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, rather than gearing up to fight wars.
or 15 years after getting his MBA, Chadha was a fairly successful senior banker at Citibank's global headquarters in Manhattan, New York's financial district. Even though he had been in the United States for a fairly short period, his employer's clout meant that Chadha and his family acquired their "Permanent Residency" cards, commonly known as green cards. But like Arnie The Terminator, Chadha, too, was pretty sure that "I will be back".
"I had made up my mind to return to India long ago just like I had, very early on in my career, decided that I wanted to work for a certain period of time outside India," says Chadha. The opportunity to be a bigger fish in a rapidly burgeoning pond was also too good to pass up. "When I returned I headed IDBI Bank for two years between 2000 and 2002, which gave me critical exposure to the Indian market. I could sense this feeling of optimism that no Western market has nowadays," he says.
Then, in August 2003, came the big break. Chadha was appointed Chief Country Officer of Deutsche Bank in India; and, in 2005, he went on to become a member of the German bank's Asia-Pacific Executive Committee - a clear sign that the Indian operations were a vital cog in the regional wheel.
"Only in the India of the 2000s could one have started an investment bank from scratch and made it the largest investment bank in the country," says Chadha with a touch of pride. Since he took over, the employee strength has grown from about 500 to over 8,000; and the Indian operations contribute a quarter to the bank's bottom line in the Asia-Pacific region.
His dream run at Deutsche Bank continues. Of the six largest public issues in the past 12 months, Deutsche Bank has played a part in four, including the `15,500 crore Coal India Ltd public issue. Now that is one mandate he would not have got on Wall Street.
| Gunit Chadha CEO, Deutsche Bank AG, India Previous employer IDBI Bank, Citibank in New York before that Why I came back For the emotional side of India, the exhilaration of a rapidly changing India and for participating in India's growth If I was not in India I would have been in London High point in India Having the satisfaction of realising, while running IDBI Bank, how reskilling, empowering and enhancing the confidence of middle-class employees could lead to dramatic, scalable results Low point in India Corporates must adopt a more inclusive approach for the uplift of the poor in India, especially in education and health care |
"I had made up my mind to return to India long ago just like I had, very early on in my career, decided that I wanted to work for a certain period of time outside India," says Chadha. The opportunity to be a bigger fish in a rapidly burgeoning pond was also too good to pass up. "When I returned I headed IDBI Bank for two years between 2000 and 2002, which gave me critical exposure to the Indian market. I could sense this feeling of optimism that no Western market has nowadays," he says.
Then, in August 2003, came the big break. Chadha was appointed Chief Country Officer of Deutsche Bank in India; and, in 2005, he went on to become a member of the German bank's Asia-Pacific Executive Committee - a clear sign that the Indian operations were a vital cog in the regional wheel.
"Only in the India of the 2000s could one have started an investment bank from scratch and made it the largest investment bank in the country," says Chadha with a touch of pride. Since he took over, the employee strength has grown from about 500 to over 8,000; and the Indian operations contribute a quarter to the bank's bottom line in the Asia-Pacific region.
His dream run at Deutsche Bank continues. Of the six largest public issues in the past 12 months, Deutsche Bank has played a part in four, including the `15,500 crore Coal India Ltd public issue. Now that is one mandate he would not have got on Wall Street.
