Deepak Parekh, the man who left Chase Manhattan to build HDFC

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Deepak Parekh once edified. “You can be a top dog one day and nothing the next. Ultimate success is an illusion, but contentment and honesty of intention are real.” Yet, nearly 30 years since taking the top post at HDFC, Parekh has remained the top dog.

Now, he is stepping down as the chairman with the merger with HDFC Bank set to be complete. The market cap of the combined entity is estimated to be $172 billion, according to Bloomberg. Bank of America is the third largest with a market capitalization of $228 billion, while JPMorgan Chase is the largest in the world at $417 billion.

Parekh famously left his Chase Manhattan Bank job in 1978, where he was earning twice the salary he would at HDFC. For Parekh, now 78, who joined HDFC as a 33-year-old and built it as India's largest private sector housing finance company, it is the end of a journey. «In a sense it is like the son taking over his father's business when he grows older,» said an emotional Parekh in 2022 after announcing the historic merger with HDFC Bank.Parekh, not all business In a 2010 interview to ET, Parekh expressed his private passions.

Business aside, some of Parekh’s extra-curricular activities could’ve even taken him to the Asian Games. «Deepak Parekh could have been on the team for the Asian Games, but he only plays it (Bridge) socially,» Hema Deora, wife of veteran Congress politician Murli Deora, had told Mumbai Mirror in an interview once. In the 1990s, Bridge games on Sunday afternoons among Parekh, Adi Godrej, Hemendra Kothari, Madhavrao Scindia were routine.

If not Bridge, it's Sudoku. The logic puzzle helps keep his mind sharp and he does it every night before sleep. “I’ll work on the most challenging, hardest Sudokus I can get my hands on.