Shikha Sharma
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer
Business
Axis Bank
India
Biography
Mrs Shikha Sharma is the Managing Director & CEO of Axis Bank, India’s third largest private sector bank in India. Mrs Sharma joined Axis Bank in 2009 and as a leader adept at managing change, she has focused on transforming Axis Bank into a Bank with strengths across a wide range of Corporate and Retail Banking products. At Axis Bank, she has focused on strengthening its retail lending franchise, enlarged its investment banking & advisory capabilities and developed a comprehensive portfolio of products in the payments space. Mrs Sharma has more than three decades of experience in the financial sector having begun her career with ICICI Bank in 1980. In her 29-year tenure with the ICICI group, Mrs Sharma was instrumental in setting up ICICI Securities–a joint venture between ICICI and JP Morgan, besides setting up various group businesses for ICICI, including investment banking and retail finance. In her last assignment at ICICI, as Managing Director & CEO of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company, she built and contributed remarkably to make it the number 1 private sector Life Insurance Company in India. Mrs Sharma has been chairing the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) National Committee on Banking since 2015. She was a member of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Technical Advisory Committee. Mrs. Sharma was also a part of RBI’s panel on Financial Inclusion, the Committee on Comprehensive Financial Services for Small Businesses and Low-Income Household. She has been the Co-Chairperson of Federation of Indian chambers of commerce and industry (FICCI) Banking & Financial Institutions Committee 2013-15 and she is a member of Visa’s Senior Client Council, APCEMEA (Asia –Pacific, Central Europe, Middle East & Africa). Mrs. Sharma’s achievements in the financial sector have received wide recognition. She is a recipient of many business awards notably; ‘Banker of the Year’ for 2014-15 by Business Standard, AIMA - JRD Tata Corporate Leadership Award for the Year 2014, India's Most Valuable CEOs by Businessworld-2013, India's Best Women CEO by Business Today- 2013 and many more.
Research Interest
Finance Global Economics Financial research Entrepreneurship
