Kotak to take non-executive role after leaving MD post in December
MUMBAI : Billionaire banker Uday Kotak, the founder of India’s fourth largest private sector lender, will transition to a non-executive board member after he steps down from the whole-time role at Kotak Mahindra Bank. In his final letter to shareholders as managing director on Saturday, Kotak said that the alignment and commitment of the shareholders, board and management will help the bank navigate the changing times. “I see my role as a non-executive board governance member and a strategic shareholder with a long-term perspective of nurturing a world-class institution," Kotak said in his letter.
He said it is unusual in today’s world of banking anywhere to have an individual with “about 26% skin in the game with disproportionate family assets in one stock, emotionally attached to living his dream of making India proud". Kotak’s tenure at Kotak Mahindra Bank is set to end in December after the Reserve Bank of India capped the tenure of bank chiefs to 15 years and to 12 years in the case of promoter chief executives. To be sure, beyond his role at the bank, Kotak was involved in the debt crisis resolution of Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd (IL&FS) and had led the markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India’s (Sebi’s) committee on corporate governance in 2017.
The bank has hired Egon Zehnder to lead a global search for a chief executive officer to replace its founder. The bank’s corporate banking head K.V.S. Manian and retail banking head Shanti Ekambaram are considered to be in the race for the top job.
In the letter, Kotak recounted that he had started from scratch in 1985 with very little capital, three people and a 300 sq. ft office. “We were at the right place at the right time.
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