Shri Kundapur Vaman Kamath

Kamath was born on December 2, 1947 into a Goud Saraswat Brahmin family, in Mangalore, Karnataka where he spent most of his early years. After completing Higher Secondary and Pre-University from St. Aloysius School, he joined the Karnataka Regional Engineering College (now called National Institute of Technology Karnataka) in Surathkal for a Bachelors Degree in Mechanical Engineering. After graduating from KREC in 1969, he joined the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) for a Masters Degree in Business Administration.

Career

After graduating from IIM-A in 1971, Kamath started his career with ICICI (Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India), in the Project Finance division and moved on to different departments to gather experience which included setting up of new businesses such as leasing, venture capital, credit rating as well as handling general management positions. As part of his general management responsibilities he initiated and implemented ICICI's computerisation programme. Substantial investments in technology from the early years have resulted in systems that are today a competitive advantage for ICICI. Kamath has generally been credited with expanding ICICI's businesses to evolve it into a technology-enabled financial organisation catering to the financial needs of corporate and retail customers.[3]

In 1988, Kamath joined the Asian Development Bank, Manila in their Private Sector Department. His principal work experience at ADB was in various projects in China, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Bangladesh and Vietnam. He was the ADB representative on the Boards of several companies.

In May 1996, Kamath returned to ICICI as its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer. Kamath was instrumental in expanding the Group's services to the retail customers. He initiated a process of a series of acquisitions of non-banking finance companies in 1996-98, and led the way to the formation of ICICI Bank.

Now, on 2nd may 2011 he is appointed as non-executive chairman of the second-largest software exporter, Infosys Ltd (earlier Infosys Technologies Ltd).

Personal life

Kamath presently resides in Mumbai. He is married to Rajalaxmi and has a son, Ajay Kamath and a daughter, Ajnya Kamath Pai. He has two grandsons, Nandan K. Pai and Lakshan K. Pai who reside in the United States.

Board membership

Kamath is a Member of the Governing Board on various educational institutions including the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Indian School of Business, National Institute of Bank Management, Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University, Gandhinagar Manipal Academy of Higher Education. Kamath is also a Member of the National Council of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). KV Kamath was elected to the Board of Directors on Infosys Ltd on May 2, 2009 and on 30th April 2011 it was announced that he will take the Chairmanship of Infosys Limited on 21st August 2011.