Indian banker named World Entrepreneur of the Year

THE founder of India’s Kotak Mahindra Bank was tonight named EY World Entrepreneur of the Year at a glittering ceremony in Monaco.

Uday Kotak beat rivals from 51 countries including James Lambert, the chairman of R&R Ice Cream who was representing Yorkshire and the UK.

The father of two set up Kotak Capital Management Finance Ltd in 1985 and progressed from seed capital of less than US$250,000 to an international group with US$2.8b in revenues.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Headquartered in Mumbai, the bank has 605 branches across India and international offices in London, New York, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Mauritius and Singapore and is considered one of India’s leading financial services conglomerates.

Speaking at a press conference after the ceremony, Mr Kotak told The Yorkshire Post: “I would love to see our institution of a global quality and scale.

“When I first went to the United States what stunned me a lot was to see the development of institutions like JP Morgan, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

“Those institutions by individuals once upon a time. The individuals are long gone, but the institutions remain.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“What drives me is to see one such quality institution from India.”

Rebecca MacDonald, founder of Canada’s Just Energy Group and chair of the judging panel, said: “It was an incredibly tough decision, but Uday shone through for the way he created a new bank in a challenging and highly regulated environment that has a positive impact in the community.

“We were impressed with his strong focus on inclusive growth, providing low-cost services to rural customers that have a tangible impact on people’s lives.”

Maria Pinelli, EY’s global vice chair of strategic growth markets, said: “Uday is a wonderful example of an entrepreneur who, with a clear vision and strategy, took on established institutions by rewriting the rules of his industry to build something from scratch.”

Related topics: