Kochhar was born on 17 November 1961 in Jodhpur, Rajasthan . She was educated at St. Angela Sophia School, Jaipur.
She then moved to Mumbai, where she joined Jai Hind College for B.Com degree of University of Mumbai. After graduating in 1982, she studied cost accountancy from Institute of Cost Accountants of India, and later did a Master of Management Studies degree of University of Mumbai from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai.
She received the Wockhardt Gold Medal for Excellence in Management Studies as well as the J. N. Bose Gold Medal in Cost Accountancy
GOLDEN CAREER
In 1984, Kochhar joined the Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India (ICICI) as a management trainee.
Kochhar was instrumental in establishing ICICI Bank during the 1990s. She was promoted to assistant general manager in 1994 and then to deputy general manager in 1996.
In 1998, she was promoted as the General Manager and headed ICICI Bank’s major client group, which handled relationships with ICICI’s top 200 clients. In 1999, she also handled the strategy and ecommerce divisions of ICICI Bank
GOLDEN CAREER
Under Kochhar’s leadership, ICICI Bank started building the nascent retail business in 2000 focusing largely on technology, innovation, process engineering and expansion of distribution and scale.
In April 2001, she took over as executive director. In 2006, Kochhar was appointed as deputy managing director of ICICI Bank. In 2006–07, Kochhar handled the international and corporate businesses of the bank. From 2007 to 2009, she was the bank’s chief financial officer (CFO) and joint managing director.
ICICI
In 2009 Kochhar was appointed as managing director and chief executive officer of the bank and has been responsible for the bank’s diverse operations in India and overseas.
She was co-chair of the World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting in 2011. Kochhar received an honorary doctorate from Carleton University, Canada in 2014.
She was conferred with the Padma Bhushan, one of India’s highest civilian honours, in 2011.
RECOGNITION
Under Kochhar’s leadership, ICICI Bank won the “Best Retail Bank in India” award in 2001, 2003, 2004 and 2005 and “Excellence in Retail Banking Award” in 2002.
Kochhar personally was awarded “Retail Banker of the Year 2004 (Asia-Pacific region)” by the Asian Banker, “Business Woman of the Year 2005” by The Economic Times and “Rising Star Award” for Global Awards 2006 by Retail Banker International.
In 2009, she debuted at number 20 in the Forbes “World’s 100 Most Powerful Women list”.
RECOGNITION
In 2011, Kochhar was awarded the “ABLF Woman of Power Award (India)” at the Asian Business Leadership Forum Awards.
Kochhar was selected in Time magazine’s list of the 100 Most Influential People in the World 2015.In 2015, she was ranked first in the Fortune List of 100 Most Powerful Women in Asia Pacific.
CONTROVERSY
On 29 March 2018, The Indian Express first reported that Videocon group promoter Venugopal Dhoot provided crores of rupees allegedly to NuPower Renewables Pvt Ltd (NRPL), a firm he had set up with Chanda Kochhar’s husband Deepak Kochhar and two relatives six months after the Videocon group got Rs 3,250 crore as loan from ICICI Bank in 2012.
On 24 January 2019, Chanda, her husband Deepak, and industrialist Venugopal Dhoot were named in a CBI FIR for cheating and defrauding ICICI Bank to the tune of Rs 1,730 crore.
