Religare Appoints Vikas Agnihotri as CEO

Religare Macquarie Wealth Management Limited is a 50:50 joint venture between Religare Wealth Management Services and Macquarie Banking and Financial Services Group.

Religare Macquarie Wealth Management appointed Vikas Agnihotri as its Chief Executive Officer. He will be reporting to the six member Religare Macquarie Wealth Management Limited board which has an equal representation from both Religare and Macquarie

Vivek Agnihotri will oversee the business operations based out of its head office in Mumbai and shall be responsible for taking decision on designing strategies and implementations. He will also review the operations management and ensure that the company is represented with integrity before institutions, analysts and investors.

Vivek Agnihotri joins Religare Macquarie Wealth Management Limited from Deutsche Bank where he was in the capacity of Commercial Director Private and Business clients. He has worked for almost two decades in the financial market of the country. Prior to Deutsche, he was working with Standard Chartered bank in various senior leadership positions such as sales director–consumer banking, head of service consumer, regional head branch banking–west and national manager of channel development & projects.

Aditya Birla Financial Services Group appoints G V Gopalakrishnan

The Aditya Birla Financial Services Group, today has appointed G V Gopalakrishnan as its Chief Operating Officer (COO). He will oversee the operations and the technology functions for and across the financial service business, a press release issued here stated.

Gopalakrishnan comes with rich experience that will help us prepare a strong foundation in operations and technology, across our financial businesses. Gopalakrishnan was Executive Vice-President, Information Technology, at HDFC Bank and his experience there was diverse across retail technology, retail assets, credit cards, corporate Internet banking, wholesale, capital markets and various strategic initiatives. Prior to HDFC Bank, Gopalakrishnan was with Standard Chartered Bank.

The Aditya Birla Financial Services Group has a presence across various financial verticals that include life insurance, mutual funds, distribution and wealth management, security based lending, insurance broking and advisory services and private equity.

Suzlon Appoints Sumant Sinha as Chief Operating Officer

Sumant Sinha, the scion of a well-known Indian political family (Sumant Sinha is son of former Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha) and an investment banker by trade, joined wind power major Suzlon Energy as its Chief Operating Officer.

Sumant Sinha has over 10 years of experience in international finance which includes a career with Citicorp Securities in New York and London and ING Barings in New York. Sumant Sinha before joining Suzlon Energy worked as CEO Aditya Birla Retail and has also held the position of CFO for the Aditya Birla Group. Sumant Sinha has an excellent track-record in both the Indian and international environments which will help Suzlon execute its global plans more effectively.

In1995, Suzlon Energy started operation with just 20 people. Today company has over 13,000 people, operations across the America, Asia, Australia and Europe, fully integrated manufacturing units in three continents. Today Suzlon is being ranked the 5th leading wind power equipment manufacturer with a global market share of 10.5%.

K R Kamath appointed as Allahabad Bank CMD

Allahabad Bank is the oldest public sector bank in India. It was set up in 1865 by a group of Europeans with a seed capital of INR 2 lakhs. In 2007, Bank’s business crossed INR.1,00,000 crores mark.

Bank of India Executive Director, K R Kamath has been appointed as the Chairman & Managing Director of Kolkata-based Allahabad Bank. The appointment has come after A C Mahajan, who was earlier serving as CMD of Allahabad Bank, took over as the chief of Canara Bank last month.

K R Kamath was a General Manager in Corporation Bank since 2002.At Corporation Bank he was in charge of Information Technology, Information Security, Management Information System and Integrated Risk Management.

K R Kamath is known for his conceptual clarity, communication skills and ability to build strong result oriented teams. He has been one of the key members of the Team that has conceptualised and initiated steps to implement Organisational Transformation Project of Corporation Bank.

Apollo Tyres appoints CFO and CRT

Apollo Tyres was started in 1975. Apollo Tyres commissioned its first plant in Perambra, Cochin, Kerala. In 2006 the company acquired Dunlop Tyres International of South Africa. The company now has four manufacturing units in India, two in South Africa and two in Zimbabwe. In early 2008, the company announced plans to open a manufacturing plant in Hungary.

Apollo Tyres has aggressive growth plans. Apollo Tyres to achieve it aggressive target has created two new positions. These two posts were created recently as part of expansion plans in the domestic and global markets. Apollo Tyres has appointed Salil Gupta as the Chief Financial Officer and Peter Becker as Chief of Research & Technology of the company.

Peter Becker based out of Germany who brings with him rich product technology experience would be responsible for establishing an R&D facility there keeping in mind the mobility needs of the European customers.

Salil Gupta brings with him knowledge of managing diverse businesses. Gupta would be overseeing the finance, taxation and accounts functions. Earlier, Mr Salil Gupta served at Dentsu India at a similar position and has also worked with KPMG as Director, Tax and Regulatory Services.

Three Executive Directors promoted as bank heads

Executive Directors of three leading public-sector banks were elevated as heads of state-owned banks on Saturday.

• Union Bank of India’s Executive Director, R S Reddy has been named as CMD of Andhra Bank.
• Central Bank of India’s Executive Director, Albert Tauro has been appointed as the CMD of Vijaya Bank.
• Bank of India’s Executive Director, K R Kamath has been appointed as the Chairman & Managing Director of Allahabad Bank.

Beginning of the Banks in news:

Union Bank of India was inaugurated by Mahatama Gandhi and the Bank commenced its operations in 1920.
Allahabad Bank is the oldest public sector bank in India. It was set up in 1865 by a group of Europeans with a seed capital of Rs 2 lakhs. In 2007, Bank’s business crossed Rs.1,00,000 crores mark.
Bank of India was founded on September 7, 1906 by a group of eminent businessmen from Mumbai. In July 1969 Bank of India was nationalized along with 13 other banks.
Central Bank of India was established in 1911 by Sir Sorabji Pochkhanawala. It was the first Indian commercial bank, which was wholly owned and managed by Indians. Sir Pherozeshah Mehta was the first Chairman of the Bank. In 1969, Central Bank of India was nationalized along with 13 other banks.
Vijaya Bank, was established on 23rd October 1931 by late Shri A.B.Shetty and other enterprising farmers in Mangalore, Karnataka. The objective behind establishment of the Bank was essentially to promote banking habit, thrift and enterpreneurship among the farming community of Dakshina Kannada district in Karnataka State. The bank became a scheduled bank in 1958.
Andhra Bank was founded by Dr.Bhogaraju Pattabhi Sitaramayya. The bank commenced business on 28th November 1923 with a paid up capital of Rs 1 lakh and an authorised capital of Rs 10 lakh.

Reference: The Hindu, www.hinduonnet.com, Sunday, August 3, 2008

George Joseph is new CMD of Syndicate Bank

George Joseph has taken over as Chairman and Managing Director of Syndicate Bank. Prior to this, he was the Executive Director of Syndicate Bank since April 2006. During his tenure as Executive Director of the Syndicate Bank, George Joseph grew the business from INR 91,284 crore to INR 1,60,368 crore.

George Joseph is a commerce graduate with first rank from Kerala University. He stood first among the Indian candidates and 11th in the world in AIB Examination (London) of the Institute of Bankers, London. He is also a Certified Associate of Indian Institute of Banking & Finance. George Joseph joined Canara Bank as Probationary Officer in 1969 and served the Bank in various capacities. While at Canara Bank, he was deputed to Bahrain as Chief Executive of the Exchange Company under Canara Bank management. George Joseph had served Canara Bank for over 36 years. Before joining Syndicate Bank.

Syndicate Bank was established in 1925 in Udupi, the abode of Lord Krishna in coastal Karnataka with a capital of INR. 8000 by three visionaries – Sri Upendra Ananth Pai, a businessman, Sri Vaman Kudva, an engineer and Dr.T M A Pai, a physician – who shared a strong commitment to social welfare.

Shailendra Bhandari to head Tata Capital PE business

Currently, there are a host of Indian entities which have entered the private equity business including ICICI, Kotak Mahindra, Reliance Capital, IDFC, IL&FS, ICICI Ventures. Tata group company Tata Capital has also planned to enter the private equity business. Tata group company Tata Capital appointed Shailendra Bhandari, the former managing director and CEO of Centurion Bank of Punjab (CBoP), as head of its private equity business. Mr Shailendra Bhandari will report to Praveen P Kadle, managing director, Tata Capital.

Tata Capital is a non-banking finance company. Tata Capital is likely to launch a mid-sized fund of around $500 million. This fund is likely to be followed by a spate of other fund launches in a quick succession. One of it is also likely to be a fund targeting the small and medium enterprises. Sources said that Tata’s have ambitions to scale up the private equity fund business to a reasonably large size over the next few years.

Shailendra Bhandari has over three decades of experience in the financial services sector. He is former Citi banker, was part of the core team led by Aditya Puri in setting up HDFC Bank. He headed ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, before he was chosen by Rana Talwar’s Sabre Capital to head the beleaguered Centurion Bank. Shailendra Bhandari along with Mr Talwar at Centurion Bank made three acquisitions – BankMuscat’s India operations, Bank of Punjab, and Lord Krishna Bank.

Motorola Appoints Sanjay Jha as head of handset division

Motorola has appointed 45 year yong Sanjay Jha, the chief operating officer of Qualcomm, to head its handset division. Sanjay Jha would report directly to the Board. He will also be co-chief executive of the parent company, sharing the responsibility with incumbent Greg Brown. He has also been named CEO of its Broadband Mobility Solutions unit, which includes its Home & Networks Mobility and Enterprise Mobility Solutions businesses.

Sanjay Jha at Qualcomm oversaw Corporate Research and Development and QUALCOMM Flarion Technologies. He also served as president of its chipset and software division QUALCOMM CDMA Technologies. Sanjay Jha served Qualcomm for 14 years.