High expectations have their advantages

Mr. Eli Leenaars has over 35 years of experience in the financial services sector, including institutional & investment banking, asset management, corporate & retail banking and life & general insurance. A respected expert on the future of digital banking, Mr. Leenaars has experience in managing businesses through a wide range of matters including mergers & acquisitions, complex corporate restructurings, strategic initiatives and challenging financial environments.

Mr. Leenaars enjoyed a 24-year career (since 1991) at ING Group N.V., a Dutch multinational banking and financial services company and various of its subsidiaries and held numerous key management positions, including as Chairman of ING Poland (1997-1999), Chairman & CEO of ING Latin America (1999-2002) and Chairman & CEO of ING Central & Eastern Europe (2003-2004). Between 2004 and 2015, Mr. Leenaars was member of ING’s Executive Board with responsibility for ING’s Global Retail & Private Banking operations and Group Technology and Operations. This also included him serving from 2010 until 2015 as CEO of ING Direct N.V., at the time the world’s largest digital bank.

From April 2015 to May 2021, Mr. Leenaars served as Group Managing Director at UBS Group AG, a Swiss multinational investment bank and financial services company and as Vice-Chairman of the Global Wealth Management Division, based in Zurich.

Mr. Leenaars has served as Group Chief Operating Officer of Quintet Private Bank, a medium-sized Luxembourg-headquartered bank and wealth manager with operations in 6 European countries, from June 2021 to April 2024, based in Luxembourg.

Since January 2019, Mr. Leenaars is a Board Member of Capital One Financial Corporation, a major US bank, headquartered in McLean, Virginia, USA, with operations primarily in the USA.

Since 2009, Mr. Leenaars is a member of the European and the Global Executive Committee of the Trilateral Commission (Paris, Tokyo and Washington, DC) and was its Treasurer, between 2009 to 2022.

Mr. Leenaars has completed LL.M. from the Catholic University Nijmegen, Netherlands and the European University Institute, Florence, Italy and attended the Program for Management Development (PMD) at Harvard Business School, Boston, USA.

Mr. Uday Kotak is the Founder and Director of the Bank.  He was the Managing Director & CEO of the Bank till September 2023, prior to becoming Non-Executive Director. He has played an important role in the growth of the Kotak Mahindra group over the past 38 years.  Under his leadership, the Kotak Mahindra group has emerged as one of India’s leading diversified and integrated financial services conglomerates, providing a range of financial solutions covering banking, asset management, alternate asset management, life and general insurance, stock broking, investment banking, private banking, microcredit and asset reconstruction.

He has played an important role in defining and developing India’s banking & financial sector over three decades. Mr. Kotak leads several key bodies and is currently Co-Chairman of the Indo-UK Financial Partnership (IUKFP) and Chairman of the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Board of India’s advisory committee on Corporate Insolvency and Liquidation. Mr. Kotak is a member of the Global Advisory Board of the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC). He was earlier a member of the International Advisory Panel of Monetary Authority of Singapore. He was also the President of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) from June 2020 until May 2021. From October 2018 to April 2022, Mr. Kotak also served as Non-Executive Chairman of a specially constituted board of Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Limited ("IL&FS") (a state-funded non-banking financial company) by the Government of India to steer IL&FS out of a deep crisis, which he served as his national duty. In 2017, a Committee on Corporate Governance constituted by SEBI under the leadership of Mr. Kotak recommended sweeping changes towards more robust and transparent corporate governance.

Mr. Kotak is the recipient of many accolades, including the ‘EY World Entrepreneur of the Year Award’ in 2014, ‘India Business Leader of the Year’ by CNBC-TV18 at the India Business Leader Awards 2021, Life Time Achievement Award at BT-KPMG Best Banks Awards 2023, Life Time Achievement award for Management at AIMA Awards 2023 and Institution Builder award at Forbes India Awards 2024.

Mr. Kotak holds a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce and a MMS degree from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai.

Mr. Ashok Vaswani has a proven track record spanning three and a half decades, initially at Citigroup and, thereafter, at Barclays, of building and growing global businesses at scale, nurturing winning teams, establishing transformational partnerships, leveraging forward leaning technology, with a compelling business vision to deliver strong bottom-line growth. He brings with him significant executional experience with high degree of compliance and industrial strength across financial services.

Mr. Vaswani was Chief Executive Officer of Barclays Bank, UK and subsequently CEO of their Global Consumer, Private, Corporate and Payments businesses and Member of the Group Executive Committee. Earlier, he was CEO Citigroup Asia Pacific and Member of the Citigroup Global Operating & Management Committees. Mr. Vaswani also built and ran various country and regional businesses across geographies. He also held position as President of Pagaya Technologies Ltd, a US-Israeli AI Fintech.

Mr. Vaswani supports various philanthropic organisations, including Pratham and Lend-A-Hand.

He has been on the board of several prestigious institutions such as, London Stock Exchange Group, The Forward Institute, UK, Former Trustee, Citizens Advice Bureau, Former Chairman, Retail Committee, British Bankers Association, Former Chairman of the Board, Entercard, Former Board member, SP Jain Institute of Global Management, UK, Former Board member, Telenor, Former Board Member of VISA Asia Pacific and VISA, UK, Former Director and Member of the Audit and Technology Committee for Barclays Africa Group Ltd and Former Director, UK Finance.

Mr. Vaswani is a Bachelor of Commerce, Economics and Accountancy from the Sydenham College of Commerce and Economics (Bombay University), Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Company Secretary from the Institute of Company Secretaries of India and received Executive Education from the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

Uday Shankar is the former Executive Chairman of Star India and President of Disney, APAC region, where he excelled at creating not just the biggest media enterprise in the region but was also a pioneer of the digital media revolution across the region. He is the visionary creator of some of the world’s most successful digital services such as Hotstar and JioCinema that have become the mobile models for the entire world.

The tech stacks created under his leadership still remain the go-to model for mobile heavy, large scale markets, which are now being adopted by media companies around the world. He is known to have created talent nurseries at a time when the industry was still in its nascent stage in India and the developing world.

Uday Shankar is a acclaimed entrepreneur, executive, technologist experienced in building scalable web applications, leveraging a wide range of technologies. In the world of consumer digital products and initiatives, over the last three decades, he has been instrumental in introduction of technologies, integrating cloud infrastructure, and content delivery networks to ensure high availability and low latency of millions of users globally and has helped deliver high-quality world class products.

Uday Shankar’s  adept working in agile environments and  leading teams to solve complex problems through innovative technology solutions, brings a unique blend of strategic vision, operational expertise and digital innovation to the forefront. Besides building businesses, he has also trained professionals who are currently running some of the largest technology companies.

Uday Shankar integrated Hotstar into the Star, and was deeply involved in all aspects of technology i.e. design,  speed, capacity, hardware,  software,  cyber-security, fall back mechanism, Nil or minimum disruption, protection of customer information & content, commercial aspects of charging etc, besides serving as a mentor and providing guidance and feedback on product development, design,  tech  and innovation roadmap and recruiting the entire leadership, attracting and building talent from the globally-known tech companies. Under his leadership Star transformed into the region’s leading company and led multiple large scale digital initiatives, data driven content strategies and technology integrations which helped scale businesses.

He is credited with pioneering the streaming revolution in India and the APAC region which was possible only using latest technology where diverse content was made available more than 500 million users. Beyond his corporate roles, Uday Shankar is also the first media executive to be the President of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). He is associated with the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF) and his social initiatives include Malaria No More (MNM).

After a distinguished corporate journey, Uday Shankar turned entrepreneur in 2021. He launched Bodhi Tree Systems, as a founder director, to use technology to redefine consumer sectors that represent significant opportunities but suffer from a lack of capital and innovation—media, education and healthcare.

Uday Shankar’s exceptional accomplishments have earned him numerous honours. Recognized by Forbes India as the “Best CEO (MNC)” for 2015 and named “Entrepreneur of the Year (Entrepreneurial CEO)” by EY for 2016, his achievements resonate widely. His inclusion in distinguished listings like the Indian Express’ “100 Most Powerful Indians” and India Today’s “50 Most Powerful People in India” reinforces his impact. Moreover, he was named the “Impact Person of the Decade – Media” by Impact Magazine.

Uday Shankar holds a Masters in Philosophy (M. Phil.) and Master of Arts (M. A.) Honors from Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Manish Kothari
Group President & Head – Commercial Banking, Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited

Manish Kothari is Group President & Head – Commercial Banking at Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited. In his current role, he is responsible for the growth of the Commercial Bank which encompasses five large business segments, viz., Agri Business – MSME & Corporates; Rural – Tractor & Crop Loans; Logistics and Infra – CV, CE Loans and Working Capital; Microcredit and Gold Loans. The Commercial Bank has built a strong footprint across majority of the districts in India and its customers have a good semi-urban and rural presence; lending itself to financial inclusion and priority sector fulfilment goals for the bank.

Prior to his current role, Manish led the Corporate Banking business of the Bank where he played a key role in setting up the Bank’s franchise in all customer segments of Corporate Banking, viz., Conglomerates, Large Corporates, Mid Corporates, SMEs, E-Commerce/Start-ups (New Age Cos.), Credit Light Corporates and Supply Chain of Corporates. Under his leadership, the Corporate Banking franchise expanded at a rapid pace, with exponential growth in advances, multi-fold growth in revenues and growth across geographies and industry segments.

He has been associated with the Kotak Mahindra Group for close to 30 years and has been a part of the Key Leadership Team (KLT) for the past 15 years. He is also part of the Bank’s Group Management Council that drives Kotak Mahindra Group’s growth charter. Manish is a Non-Executive Director on the Boards of BSS Microfinance Private Limited and Sonata Finance Private Limited.

Manish considers himself a professional entrepreneur and is passionate about building businesses, with a sharp focus on execution. He is analytical and detail-oriented, while keeping the big picture in sight and likes to lead from the front.

Manish is a metallurgical engineering graduate from the Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur where he topped the University. He then completed his PGDBM from XLRI, Jamshedpur, specialising in both Finance & Marketing. Before his post-graduation, he worked for a couple of years with Larsen & Toubro Limited as a graduate engineer trainee. In his free time, Manish unwinds by reading and listening to music.

Shanti Ekambaram
Deputy Managing Director, Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd.

Shanti Ekambaram is Deputy Managing Director at Kotak Mahindra Bank. In her current role, she is responsible for the growth of Kotak 811, Treasury and Global Markets businesses in addition to overseeing the functions of Group Marketing & Corporate Communications, Internal Vigilance, Internal Audit (administrative matters), Public Affairs, Corporate Social Responsibility and ESG. Shanti is also responsible for the Group’s institutional customers, leveraging her extensive experience and strategic insights to drive the growth of this segment including oversight of the Investment Bank and Institutional Equities business.

Prior to her current role, Shanti served as Whole-time Director from May 2022 upto Feb 2024 and led the Consumer Banking business at Kotak Mahindra Bank from April 2014 to May 2022.

Shanti has been associated with Kotak Mahindra Group for over 30 years and has rich and varied experience across retail and wholesale banking. She has been responsible for successfully setting up and scaling several business units including the Consumer Bank, Corporate and Investment Banking. She is also part of the Bank’s Group Management Council that drives Kotak Mahindra Group’s growth charter.

Before joining Kotak Mahindra Group, Shanti had a short stint with Bank of Nova Scotia - the Canadian International Bank, with their corporate banking and treasury division.

Shanti is on the board of Indian Institute of Management – Bangalore (IIM-B). She was a member of the FICCI National Committee on Banking for 2021-22.

Business Today, one of India’s leading business magazines, has recognised Shanti as one of the ‘Most Powerful Women in Indian Business’ (2013-2017, 2019 and 2020). Fortune India has featured Shanti as one of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business in India( 2016-2020 and 2023). Shanti received the “CA  Business Leader” award from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India in the “Large Corporate – BFSI” category in 2020.She was listed by ET x Femina among the Promising Women Leaders of India 2022.

Shanti is a certified Chartered Accountant and Cost Accountant.

Shanti is a dedicated philanthropist who actively supports multiple NGOs. She regularly participates in marathons across the country, using these events to raise funds for causes she cares about. Over the years, she has been recognised for her significant fundraising efforts, particularly at the Mumbai Marathon, where she has received several accolades for her contributions.

Paritosh Kashyap 
Group President & Head – Wholesale Bank Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited

Paritosh Kashyap is the Group President & Head – Wholesale Bank at Kotak Mahindra Bank. He is responsible for growing the bank’s wholesale banking business, which includes Corporate Banking, Structured Finance, Infrastructure Financing, The Banking and Financial Institutions Group, Debt Capital Markets, and Trade and Transaction Banking businesses.

Prior to this, Paritosh served as President & Head – Wholesale Bank from July 2022 to September 2024 and has been instrumental in scripting Kotak’s structured finance and real estate narrative.

Paritosh has been associated with Kotak Mahindra Group for about 30 years and has extensive experience dealing with Banks, Financial Institutions, Corporates, NBFCs and Debt Capital Market, advising them on capital structuring, financing, and securitization. He is also part of the Bank’s Group Management Council that drives Kotak Mahindra Group’s growth charter.

Paritosh is a Non-Executive Director on the boards of Kotak Mahindra Investments Limited and Kotak Infrastructure Debt Fund Limited. He was honored with the “CA Business Leader” award from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India in the “Large Corporate – BFSI” category in 2024. He was also a member of the CII National Committee on Real Estate and Housing for 2020-21.

Paritosh is a Chartered Accountant and Cost & Works Accountant. He is an avid reader and loves traveling.

Devang Gheewalla
Group Chief Financial Officer, Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd.

Devang Gheewalla is the Group Chief Financial Officer at Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited. In his current role, Devang is responsible for Group Finance, Taxation, Strategy, Investor Relations, and Operations, driving operational excellence and strategic growth.

Devang has been associated with the Kotak Mahindra Group for over 20 years and has been an integral part of the Key Leadership Team (KLT) since 2016. As Group CFO, he is also part of the Bank’s Group Management Council, which drives Kotak Mahindra Group’s growth charter. Devang has been an influential force at the bank, bringing innovation and strategic acumen, and is carrying forward the rich legacy of prudent corporate governance, sound risk management, and ethical practices. His leadership has been instrumental in positioning the bank as a dynamic and forward-thinking institution in the financial sector.

He joined Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited as the Internal Audit Head and was also the Bank's Financial Controller for over 10 years. He was a key member of the team responsible for the acquisition and integration of ING Vysya Bank with Kotak Mahindra Bank.

Prior to joining Kotak in 2004, Devang was an Associate Director at KPMG in India for a decade, where he was part of assurance and advisory services.

Devang is a Commerce graduate from Mumbai University. He is also a qualified Chartered Accountant and a Cost Accountant.

Beyond work, Devang is a singer and often unwinds by singing popular yesteryear melodies. In his leisure time, he enjoys traveling to explore new destinations and has a keen interest in wildlife.