When Chanda Kochhar began her career at Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India in 1984, she couldn’t have predicted that in 2009, she would be the CEO of ICICI Bank and bring worldwide recognition to herself and the bank. Kochhar was the first woman in India to become CEO of a private sector bank.
She is also the first Indian woman to win the Woodrow Wilson Award for Global Citizenship. The award goes to executives who work to improve communities. Chanda Kochhar’s program, ICICI Digital Village, brought financial tools to over 11,000 aspiring entrepreneurs.
After graduating from the University of Mumbai with a Master of Management Studies degree, Chanda Kochhar became a management trainee at ICICI. During her time as a student, Kochhar won both the Wockhardt Gold Medal and the J.N.Bose gold medal award. She helped set up the bank in the early 1990s and received promotions until she became CEO in a highly publicized CEO succession closely watched by the Indian media. Her accomplishments are widely recognized by Fortune, which consistently placed her on their Most Powerful Women in Business list each year. Asian Banker also recognized Chanda Kochhar as Retail Banker of the Year 2004 and Bloomberg Markets’ 50 Most Influential People in Global Finance list. In 2015, TIME magazine’s named Kochhar 100 Most Influential People in the world. She has proven she is unfazed by challenges and adaptive, traits shared by other winners of these prestigious awards.
In 2011, Chanda Kochhar won the Padma Bhushan Award, the Indian government’s highest civilian honor. In 2014, Canada’s Carleton University awarded Kochhar an honorary Doctor of Laws degree for her financial sector work. She is in good company, Nobel Laureates, a former UN Secretary General and Soviet Union President also received honorary degrees from the university.
Until her retirement in October 2018, Chanda Kochhar was a role model to female entrepreneurs and women business leaders. Her own informal mentor was K.V. Kamath ICICI’s longtime CEO. She is known for her many glamorous saris, which she wears for all public appearances. Besides her unique look, Today, Kochhar is known for her austerity measures at the bank in 2009. She’s credited with pulling ICICI Bank through the worldwide financial crisis that crippled other banks. Kochhar was cautious and avoided risk, a move that stunned many at the time, however, she was proven right. Today, Kochhar lives in Mumbai with husband Deepak Kochhar.
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