Axis Bank Inducts Amitabh Chaudhry On Its Board
Amitabh Chaudhry to replace Shikha Sharma on Axis Bank board.
Axis Bank Ltd. inducted Amitabh Chaudhry as additional director on its board, three weeks before he takes over as the new managing director and chief executive officer of the private lender.
He will replace incumbent Shikha Sharma whose fourth term was curtailed by the Reserve Bank of India by nearly two-and-a-half years.
Axis Bank, in a board meeting held on Saturday, approved the appointment of Chaudhry as additional director. The board also gave its nod for reappointment of Samir Barua, Som Mittal and Rohit Bhagat as independent directors.
The appointment is subject to shaerholder approval.
Chaudhry, the former MD and CEO of HDFC Standard Life Insurance Company, was in September named the MD and CEO of Axis Bank for three years with effect from Jan 1. Chaudhry succeeds Sharma who demits office on Dec. 31.
He started his career in corporate banking with the Bank of America in 1987, where he worked in diverse roles. Chaudhry is a B.Tech (electronic & electricals) from the Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani and an alumnus of the lndian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.
In July 2017, the board of Axis Bank had approved Sharma’s reappointment, who was to start her fourth term as MD and CEO from June 2018. However, in April this year, Sharma wanted her new term to be reduced to seven months from a three-year tenure without citing reasons, which was accepted by the board.
It was learnt that the RBI had asked Axis Bank's board to reconsider the decision to reappoint Sharma amid concerns over rising bad loans on the bank’s books. She completed her third term as the bank’s head on May 31.