Madhabi Puri-Buch to go on sabbatical, Bagchi to head I-Sec

ICICI Securities (I-Sec) today said Anup Bagchi would replace Madhabi Puri-Buch as managing director and chief executive officer from May 1. Buch, who took charge of I-Sec in February 2009 after the retirement of S Mukherji, would move to ICICI Bank and proceed on a sabbatical for personal reasons, the financial services firm said in a statement.

Prior to taking charge at ICICI Securities, Buch was an executive director at ICICI Bank and looked after the global market business, which covers treasury solutions for clients, including foreign exchange, fixed income and derivatives solutions.

As the head of I-Sec, Buch was responsible for the firm’s corporate finance activities, including equity capital markets advisory services and institutional and retail stock broking. ICICI Direct, the online broking arm of I-Sec, has over two million customers.

Prior to his latest assignment, Bagchi was in-charge of retail broking, distribution of retail financial products and wealth management services at I-Sec. He has been with the ICICI group for over 17 years and also headed ICICI Bank’s international retail banking group.

Separately, the board of ICICI Lombard General Insurance appointed Alok Agarwal and Neelesh Garg as executive directors.

Garg had joined ICICI Lombard in 2003 and was looking after retail and bancassurance initiatives. Agarwal, who had joined ICICI Lombard in 2002, was heading the corporate solutions group.

The management has not yet appointed an executive director on the board of ICICI Lombard after Vishakha Mulye left in mid-2009 to head ICICI Ventures.

In the 1990s, both Garg and Agarwal had worked with ICICI Bank and handled key roles. They were responsible for business development, project appraisals and project monitoring. Garg was also instrumental in setting up the proprietary fixed income trading desk at ICICI.