Kankipati Rajan Raju
Title : LOOK EAST
 
Company Name : Development Bank of Singapore
 
 
       
 

It was pride that changed angels into devils; it is humility that makes men as angels. And when you talk about Kankipati Rajan Raju, head, Development Bank of Singapore (DBS), India, he is certainly humility personified. A soft-spoken person, he nevertheless is a gem of strategist who plans his move like an adept chess player. Always bullish about the prospects of his company, the Managing Director and head, South and Southeast Asia (covering Indonesia, India, Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines), Raju is never short of ideas in making his Bank a premier institution.

A graduate in economics from Bombay University, Raju later went to do his post graduation in business administration from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. He joined the DBS as Managing Director and chief administration officer in the Treasury & Markets Business in 1999 and since then he hasn't looked back. Raju is among the few individuals who were instrumental in shaping the Processing and Servicing area of the Bank in 2000 and later also led a Value Engineering team that addressed process improvement across the bank. Always willing to take initiatives, Raju later moved to his current position in August 2003 and was made a member of both the Management Committee and Policy Committee for DBS.

 

Operational in India since 1994 with a representative office in Mumbai, it's people like Raju who have guided the fortune of the Bank, which was later, upgraded to a full branch in 1995. "The new branch is in line with our plan to grow organically in India. In the last year, DBS has committed more resources to expanding our franchise in India. We have hired new talents, injected more capital, and expanded the range of products and services for our customers," Raju said recently during an interview. It was under Raju that DBS committed an additional $105 million in its operations in 2004, bringing the total capital invested in the country to $122 million.

The new funds helped to speed up asset growth by allowing the bank to take on larger domestic exposures, as well as facilitate further expansion into wholesale banking, enterprise banking, treasury and markets including derivatives and transactional banking services such as cash management, trade and custody operations. Apart from DBS, Raju is also involved with a number of other companies in an advisory capacity. He is on the board of directors for CLS Group Holdings, Bank of the Philippines Islands, Bank of the Philippines Islands Capital Corporation, SP Services Ltd., Thai Military Bank, PT Bank DBS Indonesia, Capital OK Company Ltd, and Asean Finance Corporation Ltd (AFC Merchant Bank). For a dynamic, talented and multi-faceted leader like Raju there is no goal which can remain too far, for too long. And with he at the helm of affairs, there is one assurance - you can bank on his angel-like quality and of course, on his market strategies.