A self-made man, the veteran banker Uday Kotak has played a key role in influencing policies and regulations in the financial markets and has also built a financial powerhouse from the Kotak GroupKotak Group over the past four decades.
Kotak, born in a middle-class Gujarati family in Mumbai, branched out in a completely different business than his family's cotton trading business. Kotak started in the financial services industry in the mid 1980s and successfully built a profitable leasing and finance business before getting a coveted banking license in the early 2000s when the RBI opened the doors for more private banks.
Kotak is an astute banker, who has built the full-scale bank by organic growth as well as inorganic growth. He pounced on the ING Vysya Bank to expand in the southern states at the right time. Kotak Bank has a market value of Rs 3.31 lakh crore.
Kotak has a huge amount of respect in the industry. Six years ago, the 63-year-old Kotak chaired the corporate governance committee that had recommended separating the rules of the chairman and the MD. The committee recommends having at least one women director on board.
Kotak has been the go-to person for crisis situations. He was tasked with overseeing the recovery of failed IL&FS in 2018. He managed to solve 55 per cent of the 1 lakh crore debt of the complex financing institution.