The ICICI Bank [Get Quote] board, on Friday, named joint managing director and CFO Chanda Kochhar as the bank's chief executive officer and managing director. She will take over from K V Kamath, the bank's current CEO and MD, when his term ends in April 2009.

The board also appointed K V KKamath as the non-executive chairman of ICICI Bank, a role being performed by his mentor Narayan Vaghul, who is scheduled to step down once his term ends in March. Vaghul has been with the ICICI group for 24 years.

Kamath had started his career in 1971 at erstwhile ICICI and after a stint with the Asian Development Bank [Get Quote], he returned to ICICI as its CEO in 1996. Initially, he headed ICICI, the development financial institution, and was instrumental in its transition into a universal bank in 2001.

Kamath, now also the president of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), is a member of the boards of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and the Manipal University.

Apart from Kochhar, ICICI Prudential Life CEO Shikha Sharma was also in contention for the bank's top post. The others who were in the fray include executive directors V Vaidyanathan, Sonjoy Chatterjee and Madhabi Puri-Buch.

Kochhar had joined the erstwhile ICICI as a Management Trainee in 1984. When ICICI decided in 1993 to enter the commercial banking, she was deputed to ICICI Bank as a part of the core team to set up the bank.

She was instrumental in setting up and scaling up the retail business for ICICI Bank. In April 2001, she took over as the executive director, heading the retail business in the ICICI Bank. In April 2006, she was appointed as deputy managing director.

She has often featured in the Fortune magazine's annual lists of most powerful business women across the world.