Kundapur Vaman Kamath is the former chief of the
New Development Bank
The New Development Bank (NDB), formerly referred to as the BRICS Development Bank, is a multilateral development bank established by the BRICS Sovereign state, states (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). According to the Agreemen ...
of
BRICS
BRICS is an acronym for five leading emerging economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. The first four were initially grouped as "BRIC" (or "the BRICs") in 2001 by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill, who coined the ter ...
countries, previously he has also served as the Chairman of
Infosys Limited, the second-largest
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
n IT services company, and as the Non-Executive Chairman of
ICICI Bank
ICICI Bank Limited is an Indian Private bank. It is headquartered at Mumbai. It offers a wide range of banking products and financial services for corporate and retail customers through a variety of delivery channels and specialized subsidiari ...
, India's largest private bank. Kamath also served as ICICI Bank's founder and Managing Director and CEO from 1 May 1996 until his retirement from executive responsibilities on 30 April 2009.
Kamath took charge as the Chairman of
Infosys
Infosys Limited is an Indian Multinational corporation, multinational information technology company that provides business consulting, information technology and outsourcing services. The company was founded in Pune and is headquartered in Ba ...
from
N. R. Narayana Murthy on 21 August 2011. He remained Chairman till June 2015. Before serving in this position, he was the Non-Executive Chairman of the company from 2 May 2011.
Kamath also serves as an independent director on the boards of the Houston-based oil services company
Schlumberger
Schlumberger Limited (), doing business as SLB, is an oilfield services company. Schlumberger has four principal executive offices located in Paris, Houston, London, and The Hague.
Schlumberger is the world's largest offshore drilling compa ...
since 2010, and the Indian pharmaceutical manufacturer
Lupin
''Lupinus'', commonly known as lupin, lupine, or regionally bluebonnet etc., is a genus of plants in the legume family Fabaceae. The genus includes over 199 species, with centers of diversity in North and South America. Smaller centers occur ...
. He is also a member of the Board of Governors of the
Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University
Pandit Deendayal Energy University (PDEU), formerly Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University (PDPU), has been established by GERMI as a Private University through the State Act enacted on 4 April 2007. The university is located at Raysan village of G ...
.
Early life
Kamath was born on 2 December 1947 in
Mangalore
Mangalore (), officially known as Mangaluru, is a major port city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It is located between the Arabian Sea and the Western Ghats about west of Bangalore, the state capital, 20 km north of Karnataka–Ker ...
,
Karnataka State
Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...
. His family hails from the town of
Kundapur
Kundapur, also called Kundapura, is a coastal town situated in the Udupi district of the state of Karnataka, India. This town was known as Coondapoor while it was part of the erstwhile South Canara district (1862–1947) of the Madras Pre ...
in Karnataka, and his father's name was Vishwanath Kamath. His mother-tongue is
Konkani and he also speaks
Tulu
Tulu may refer to:
People
*Derartu Tulu (born 1972), Ethiopian long-distance runner
*Walid Yacoubou (born 1997), Togolese footballer nicknamed "Tulu"
India
*Tulu calendar, traditional solar calendar generally used in the regions of southwest Kar ...
,
Kannada
Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...
and
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
fluently. He spent most of his early years in Mangalore, and attended a
Kannada
Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...
-medium government school. After matriculation, he completed his PUC (Pre-University), which at that time was only one year in length, at
St. Aloysius College. After completing his PUC, he joined
National Institute of Technology Karnataka
National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK), also known as NITK Surathkal, formerly known as Karnataka Regional Engineering College (KREC), is a public technical university at Surathkal, Mangalore. It was founded in 1960 as KREC while to ...
,
Surathkal
Surathkal is one of the major localities in the northern part of Mangalore city located on NH-17, National highway 66 (previously as NH-17) in the Dakshina Kannada, Dakshina Kannada district, Karnataka state, India on the shore of Arabian sea. ...
(known at that time as Karnataka
Regional Engineering College
The National Institutes of Technology (NITs) are the central government-owned-public technical institutes under the ownership of Ministry of Education, Government of India. They are governed by the National Institutes of Technology, Science ...
) for a bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering. After graduating from NIT Surathkal in 1969, he joined the
Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad
Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM Ahmedabad) is the world's number 1 business school, located in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. The school has been accorded the status of an Institute of National Importance by Ministry of Human Resource ...
(IIM-A) for a
Post Graduate Diploma in Management
A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...
.
Career
After graduating from
IIM Ahmedabad
Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM Ahmedabad) is the world's number 1 business school, located in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. The school has been accorded the status of an Institute of National Importance by Ministry of Human Resource ...
in 1971, Kamath started his career with
ICICI (Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India) in the Project Finance division and moved on to different departments to gather experience, including establishing new business lines such as leasing, venture capital, and credit ratings as well as handling general management responsibilities. As part of his general management responsibilities, he initiated and implemented ICICI's computerisation program. Substantial investments in technology from those early years have resulted in systems that are today a competitive advantage for ICICI. Kamath has generally been credited with expanding ICICI's businesses to evolve it into a technology-enabled financial organisation catering to the financial needs of corporate and retail customers.
In 1988, Kamath joined the
Asian Development Bank
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a regional development bank established on 19 December 1966, which is headquartered in the Ortigas Center located in the city of Mandaluyong, Metro Manila, Philippines. The bank also maintains 31 field office ...
, Manila in their Private Sector department. His principal work experience at ADB was in various projects in China, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Bangladesh, and Vietnam. He was the ADB representative on the boards of several companies.
In May 1996, Kamath returned to ICICI as its managing director and chief executive officer. Kamath was instrumental in expanding the Group's services to the retail customers. He initiated a process of a series of acquisitions of non-banking finance companies in 1996–98 and led the way to the formation of
ICICI Bank
ICICI Bank Limited is an Indian Private bank. It is headquartered at Mumbai. It offers a wide range of banking products and financial services for corporate and retail customers through a variety of delivery channels and specialized subsidiari ...
.
On 2 May 2011, he was appointed as Non-Executive Chairman of the second-largest software exporter,
Infosys
Infosys Limited is an Indian Multinational corporation, multinational information technology company that provides business consulting, information technology and outsourcing services. The company was founded in Pune and is headquartered in Ba ...
Ltd. (earlier Infosys Technologies Ltd.).
He currently is a Lead independent director at Infosys after having stepped down from chairmanship to make way for
N. R. Narayana Murthy. He is designated to be non-executive chairman of Infosys Board, effective 11 October 2014.
After being appointed as the first chief of the
New Development Bank
The New Development Bank (NDB), formerly referred to as the BRICS Development Bank, is a multilateral development bank established by the BRICS Sovereign state, states (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). According to the Agreemen ...
set up by the BRICS, he went on to step down from this post of Chairman and Independent Director effective 5 June 2015.
He is appointed as the Chairman of the newly constituted development finance institution National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NaBFID).
Board membership
Kamath is a member of the Governing Boards of several educational institutions, including the
Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad
Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIM Ahmedabad) is the world's number 1 business school, located in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. The school has been accorded the status of an Institute of National Importance by Ministry of Human Resource ...
,
Indian School of Business
The Indian School of Business (ISB) is a private business school established in India in 2001. It has two parallel campuses in India, in Hyderabad (Telangana) and Mohali (Punjab). It offers certificates in various post-graduate management prog ...
,
National Institute of Bank Management
The National Institute of Bank ManagementNIBM is an autonomous institute located in Pune, India. It is an autonomous, apex institution for research, training, education and consultancy in bank management.
About the institute
NIBM was establis ...
,
Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University
Pandit Deendayal Energy University (PDEU), formerly Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University (PDPU), has been established by GERMI as a Private University through the State Act enacted on 4 April 2007. The university is located at Raysan village of G ...
, Gandhinagar and the
Manipal Academy of Higher Education
Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) is a private deemed university located in Manipal, India. The university also has campuses in Mangalore, Bangalore and Jamshedpur in India , and global campus in Dubai and Malacca (Malaysia). As of ...
. He was the Chairman of Governing Board at
Indian Institute of Management Indore
The Indian Institute of Management Indore (often abbreviated as IIM-I) is an autonomous public business school located in Indore, Madhya Pradesh in India. Instituted in 1996, IIM Indore is the sixth addition to the Indian Institute of Mana ...
, until his appointment to the New Development Bank of BRICS countries. Deepak Satvalekar replaced him.
Kamath is also a member of the National Council of
Confederation of Indian Industry
The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is a non-governmental trade association and advocacy group headquartered in New Delhi, India, founded in 1895.
CII engages business, political, academic, and other leaders of society to shape global ...
(CII).
He also serves on the boards of
Schlumberger
Schlumberger Limited (), doing business as SLB, is an oilfield services company. Schlumberger has four principal executive offices located in Paris, Houston, London, and The Hague.
Schlumberger is the world's largest offshore drilling compa ...
, Houston-based oil services company, and
Lupin
''Lupinus'', commonly known as lupin, lupine, or regionally bluebonnet etc., is a genus of plants in the legume family Fabaceae. The genus includes over 199 species, with centers of diversity in North and South America. Smaller centers occur ...
, an Indian pharmaceutical manufacturer.
Awards
* Most e-savvy CEO amongst Asian Banks – The Asian Banker Journal of Singapore
* Finance Man of the Year Award – The Mumbai Management Association
* Best CEO for Innovative HR Practices – World HRD Congress
* Asian Business Leader of the Year – Asian Business Leader Award 2001 (
CNBC Asia
CNBC Asia is a pay television business channel based in Singapore. A subsidiary of NBCUniversal, it is the Asian service of CNBC (Consumer News and Business Channel). Its programmes originate from Singapore. It was officially opening ceremony at ...
)
* Outstanding Business Leader of the Year –
CNBC-TV18
CNBC TV18 is an Indian pay television Business channels, business and financial news channel owned by NBCUniversal and TV18.
CNBC TV18 Prime HD
Having launched on 26 October 2011, this is CNBC TV18's premium service and the first business ...
, 2006
* Businessman of the Year –
Business India
''Business India'' is a fortnightly business news magazine founded by brothers Ashok Hotchand Advani, Hiroo Advani and Rajkumar Advani in 1978 and published in Mumbai
Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities an ...
, 2005
* Business Leader Award of the Year –
The Economic Times
''The Economic Times'' is an Indian English-language business-focused daily newspaper. It is owned by The Times Group. ''The Economic Times'' began publication in 1961. As of 2012, it is the world's second-most widely read English-language bus ...
, 2007
* Businessman of the Year –
Forbes Asia
''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...
*
Padma Bhushan
The Padma Bhushan is the third-highest civilian award in the Republic of India, preceded by the Bharat Ratna and the Padma Vibhushan and followed by the Padma Shri. Instituted on 2 January 1954, the award is given for "distinguished service ...
Award from the Indian government – 2008
References
External links
Official profileProfile of K.V. Kamath
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kamath, K. V.
Living people
Indian bankers
Businesspeople from Mangalore
Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad alumni
1947 births
National Institute of Technology, Karnataka alumni
ICICI Bank
Infosys people
Recipients of the Padma Bhushan in trade and industry
Indian chairpersons of corporations
Konkani people