THE JOURNEY

My professional career started when I joined Standard Chartered in 1990 after graduating with a Masters in Management Studies from Sydenham Institute of Management in Mumbai. My first appointment in Standard Chartered was as line manager responsible for running the data centre for the eight branches in Kolkata (then known as Calcutta, India). Two years later, I was given two days notice to move to Mumbai as Operations Head for the Investment Management Unit in the Merchant Bank. I continued and grew in this role until 1997, when I got the opportunity to move into a newly created role to look at internal controls for specific Business and all the Support Functions for Standard Chartered India. The role reported into the CEO and CFO. This role grew and morphed into a Business and Operations Risk role for India and included responsibility for Insurance, BCP and Y2K.

Around 1999, I started getting restless and began looking out for new areas to venture into within the bank. The question that dogged me was – what is the logical next step for someone with my background. It was then that I became aware of a new function being set up in London called Group Operational Risk. I contacted the Head of the function to understand more. The more we spoke, the more I realized that this was the answer that I was looking for. I consulted with my colleagues in the Finance function and a few friends. Some were very supportive, but there were others who warned that I was taking a big risk….no one in India had heard of Operational Risk. Think twice, I was warned.

I decided to go ahead and joined the Group Operational Risk Function and never looked back. I moved in as Regional Head for South Asia and Middle East in 2000, based out of Mumbai. I moved to London in 2000 to subsequently take on an expanded regional role that included US, UK and Africa. It was around this time that I got heavily involved in the industry level discussions around Basel 2 and Operational risk.  This with the Financial Services Authority, the British Bankers Association and the Institute of International Finance. As my involvement in the discussions grew, it became quite apparent that the challenge with the accord lay in the implementation and this was critical in Standard Chartered’s case given its diverse geographic base. In 2002, I moved to Singapore and set up an Operational risk capability to meet the requirements of the entire Group – ultimately covering over 80 countries and spanning the key businesses and functions.

The Group Operational Risk Function grew in size as Standard Chartered expanded its presence in Asia, Africa and Middle East. As Basel 2 Programme Director for Operational risk, I took Standard Chartered to Basel 2 compliance in 2007 with the additional responsibility of Head, Group Operational Risk Policy & Process. This, with a central team of 12. I held that position until June 2011 when I left Standard Chartered, 21 years after joining them, to set out on my own.  That ended Chapter 1 of my professional career and Chapter 2 as an entrepreneur started. Will talk about that in my next blog, until next time…