Financial houses see big management changes

A major top management level churn is on in the country's financial services space, with the Aditya Birla group emerging among the biggest beneficiaries of this shake-out as it has attracted a large number of executives from other companies.

There is hardly a corporate house present in financial services business that has remained unscathed from the ongoing shake-up, be it domestic majors like ICICI, Reliance and Birla or foreign giants like Citigroup and Merrill Lynch, said a senior executive at a leading head hunting firm.

Reliance Capital, the financial services arm of Anil Ambani group, recently appointed Sam Ghosh as its new CEO, in place of Amitabh Chaturvedi. Ghosh was previously with Allianz and was responsible for ramping up its Indian insurance ventures.

Besides, Aditya Birla group has taken in Pankaj Razdan, formerly CEO of ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund, as its financial services business deputy CEO.

About a dozen recent recruitments at the senior level of Aditya Birla group's various financial services businesses include Gautam Chainani, joining it as chief people officer, from American Express.

Besides, Birla Sunlife AMC also got a new CEO in Anil Kumar, who comes with varied experience with investment banking major Citibank NA. Birla Sunlife has also pulled in Kalpen Parekh and Naveen Tiwari from ICICI Prudential AMC to co-head its retail sales business, while Rajiv Joshi has joined as head of compliance and legal from HDFC Ergo General Insurance.

However, Birla group has also seen its share of exits in this churn. Taurus MF appointed Amit Gupta as its vice president and country head for retail sales.