Corporate Responsibility

Non-Executive Independent Director

Dr. Ashok Gulati is a M.A. and Ph.D. from the Delhi School of Economics. Currently, he is a Distinguished Professor at the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER). Prior to this, he was the Chairperson of the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP), Government of India (2011-2014). He has been an Independent Director on the Central Board of Directors of RBI, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) and National Commodity and Derivatives Exchange Limited (NCDEX). He is currently a member of the Tenth Audit Advisory Board of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

Deputy Managing Director

Shanti Ekambaram is the Whole-time Director of Kotak Mahindra Bank. In her new avatar she heads several functions including Kotak 811, Vigilance, Public Affairs, Human Resources, Group Marketing & Corporate Communications, Treasury, and Financial Inclusion.

Prior to her new role Shanti was head Consumer Banking and build an integrated Consumer Banking Franchise across asset and liability products. Before taking over the reins of consumer banking, she set up several businesses and was the head of the bank’s corporate and investment banking business. 

Managing Director & CEO

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 Corporate and Consumer businesses.

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.

Non-Executive Independent Director

Mr C S Rajan, aged 66 years, is a successful leader with over 40 years of experience across significant government portfolios. In roles ranging from Sub-divisional Magistrate and Collector to Chief Secretary and then Whole-time Dy. Chairman of the Chief Minister’s Advisory Council, Mr. Rajan has served the Government of Rajasthan in key sectors including Agriculture and Rural Development, Industry (including MSME), Infrastructure (including Roads and Energy), Financial Services, General Administration and Business Management et al. Mr. Rajan has served on a number of inter-disciplinary teams for review of World Bank projects, and also as a Consultant to the World Bank on a Study on Farmer Participation in Agricultural Research and Extension System. Mr. Rajan is currently serving as a Government of India appointed Non-Executive Chairman of Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Limited and was also its Managing Director from April 2019 to October 2022. Mr. Rajan has a post graduate degree in History from St. Stephen’s College, University of Delhi and is a retired IAS officer of the 1978 Batch.

Mr. Amit Desai, B. Com., LL.B., is a lawyer, with several decades of experience.
Mr. Amit Desai is a Board Member of Kotak Mahindra Trustee Company Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Bank.

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

Manish Kothari is Group President & Head – Commercial Banking at Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited. He has been with the Kotak Mahindra Group for close to three decades and has been a part of the Key Leadership Team (KLT) for the past 15 years. In September 2024, the Board of Directors have appointed him as a Senior Management Personnel of the Bank.

Manish took charge of the Commercial Bank in August 2022 – and currently heads a team across India covering multiple 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 this 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.

Over the years, Manish has dealt with corporates of all hues as well as looked at commercial retail business segments in metro, urban, semi-urban and rural settings. And, during this period, his handling of businesses through multiple economic cycles & events has given him a deep understanding and experience of all aspects that drive successful business models - while maintaining a strong focus on growth & risk-adjusted return, nurturing a high quality team and delivering shareholder value.

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.

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.