Camaraderie Of The Vaidyans

Exclusive with the nation’s reinsurer & nation’s banker.

- Sangheeta Bhattacharya & Anish Shanker

Dr M Geevarghese Vaidyan, a true banker with consistent excitement in both his professional and personal life. He is the Deputy Managing Director & Group Executive (Stressed Asset Management) in India’s biggest PSU, State Bank of India. A man of immense acumen who has always stood out in the crowd with his out-of-the-box approach in every assignment he has undertaken. Dr Vaidyan is married to Alice Vaidyan, who is the first woman to hold the position of Chairman & Managing Director in the country’s insurance company and only reinsurer, General Insurance Corporation India. FWD business magazine caught up with this extraordinary and down to earth power duo who shares a beautiful camaraderie. M G Vaidyan cultivated the habit of doing things in a unique way from a very young age. In his tenure with SBI, he held various assignments and has steered projects efficaciously which had little chance of success. Dr Vaidyan’s banking experience is quite wide from retail, wholesale, corporate, SME, treasury, agriculture to micro finance. He was also closely involved in the setting up and running of two subsidiaries of State Bank of India, SBI Gilts (now SBI DFHI) Ltd. and SBI Life Insurance Company Ltd. As he completes his three and a half decade of service in 2016 with the country’s largest lender, we take a closer look at his various assignments and how he transformed challenges into achievements.

During your tenure in Tamil Nadu SBI became famous for the book-building initiatives, especially with gold loans. How did you motivate employees of a public-sector bank to go the extra mile?