Steady Hand

Ashok Vaswani's entry as MD and CEO paves the way for Kotak Mahindra Bank's new journey

- ANAND ADHIKARI

WHEN ASHOK VASWANI was a young adult in the ’70s and ’80s, his uncle owned a shop in a five-star hotel in South Mumbai. Every year during the holidays, he would work at the shop, a duty he gladly accepted. He’d land at the store and sell merchandise all day. The hotel’s lively environment— foreign tourists bustling around, smartly dressed people gathering to meet—always captured his fancy, making him think of working in the hospitality industry someday.

As fate would have it, he embarked on a remarkable, nearly four-decade global banking journey that has seen him work in the UK, Africa, Europe, Turkey and the Middle East. He has also made significant career transitions during this period, from the US-based Citigroup to the UK’s Barclays group. In June 2022, he took up another assignment—as President at the US-based AI-enabled fintech firm Pagaya.

VASWANI’S ADDITION IS CRUCIAL TO TRANSFORM THE BANK INTO A TECH-SAVVY INSTITUTION