BS People: Gunit Chadha

Following the path of least resistance, Chadha moves to Singapore

The man who has been just named co-chief executive of Deutsche Bank's Asia-Pacific business prefers to maintain a strict work-life balance to stay focused.

Gunit Chadha is not like most of his fellow bankers. He believes that "har ek friend" is indeed "zaroori" in life and meets a group of 10 friends every Sunday afternoon to unwind. For him a bad bollywood movie has never been made and his interests also extend to cricket and wildlife.

But this work-life balance is not heavily tilted towards life as he is out six days in a week spending time with the bank's clients. In his present role as chief executive of Deutsche Bank in India, Chadha was instrumental in growing the bank's balance sheet here, by 34 per cent per annum in the last five years.

Under him, the India franchise's profitability increased (compound annual growth of 38 per cent in last five years), asset quality improved (net non-performing assets currently around 0.2 per cent), and headcount expanded (over 8,000 people now from 500 employees eight years back). India is now among the top five countries for Deutsche Bank globally.

Chadha will take charge of his new responsibilities from June 1, 2012 and will relocate to Singapore soon thereafter. He and Alan Cloete (also named as co-chief executive of Asia-Pacific business) will join the bank's global group executive committee.

Chadha, an alumnus of Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad, says he chose the path of least resistance, in other words study economics in Delhi's St Stephen's College, that helped him to get a place in the country's premier management school.

Before moving to Deutsche Bank in 2003, he was the managing director at IDBI Bank and had worked with Citibank in both India and the US. At Deutsche Bank, he was interviewed by both Anshuman Jain and Juergen Fitschen, who will take charge as global co-chief executives of the bank later this year.