Chanda Kocchar is a corporate as well as a retail banker. Kochhar began her career with ICICI as a Management Trainee in 1984 and has thereon successfully risen through the ranks by handling multidimensional assignments and heading all the major functions in the Bank at various points in time.

Early Life of Chanda Kocchar
Chanda Kocchar was born on November 17, 1961 in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. She completed her schooling from St. Angela Sophia School. Thereafter she moved to Mumbai where she joined Jai Hind College and completed her B.A. Then she also did her ICWAI. She also attained the Masters degree in Management studies from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management studies, Mumbai.

Career of Chanda Kocchar
Chandar joined in 1984 The Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India Ltd as a Management trainee after her Masters. Initially she handled Project Appraisal and Monitoring and projects in various industries like Petrochemicals, Textile, Paper and Cement.

In 1993 she was sent to ICICI bank as part of a core team to set the bank. In 1994 she was promoted to the post of Assistant General Manager and then to Deputy General Manager in 1996. In the same year she headed the newly formed the Infrastructure Industry Group of ICICI. She became the General Manager in 1998 and headed ICICI`s "Major Client Group", which handled relationships with ICICI`s top 200 clients. Later on in 1999, she handled the Strategy and E-commerce divisions of ICICI.

Under her leadership, ICICI bank started the Retail business in July 2000 and emerged the largest retail financer in India, in the next five years. She took over as Executive Director, heading the in ICICI Bank In April 2001.

She was appointed as Deputy Managing Director of ICICI Bank in April 2006. She managed the Corporate and Retail banking business of ICICI Bank. From October 2006 to October 2007, she looked after the International and Corporate businesses of ICICI Bank. For two year she was also the Bank`s Chief Financial Officer (CFO), Joint Managing Director (JMD) and the official spokesperson. She headed the Corporate Centre of ICICI Bank. She is also a director of different group companies of ICICI. She is the president of ICICI Bank Eurasia Limited Liability Company and ICICI Investment Management Company Limited. She is also the Vice-Chairperson of ICICI Bank UK PLC and ICICI Bank Canada. She is even the director in ICICI International Limited and ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company Ltd. and part of the Governing Council in 1964.

For a period of five years starting from 2009 onwards she is the CEO and MD of ICICI Bank.

Awards received by Chanda Kochhar
Chanda Kocchar was awarded "Retail Banker of the Year 2004 (Asia-Pacific region)" by the Asian Banker, "Business Woman of the Year 2005" by The Economic Times and "Rising Star Award" for Global Awards 2006 by Retail Banker International. She has also figured in Fortune`s list of "Most Powerful Women in Business" since 2005. She has also been awarded the Padma Bhushan Award which is the third highest civilian honour by the Government of India for the year 2010 for her services to banking sector.

Other Affiliations
She is a member of the Prime Minister`s Council on Trade & Industry, US-India CEO Forum, Executive Board of the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad, Member of the Board of Governors of Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), Member of the Managing Committee of the Indian Banks Association and also a member of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) Society.

Personal life of Chanda Kocchar
She currently resides in Mumbai and is married to Deepak Kochhar. He is a wind energy entrepreneur and her Business schoolmate. She has a son and a daughter.