Shikha Sharma-The Managing Director and The CEO of the Axis Bank

Shikha Sharma is the Managing Director and the CEO of the Axis Bank. She is the chairperson of Axis Asset Management Company Ltd., Axis Bank UK Ltd., Axis Capital Ltd. and Axis Private Equity Ltd. Under her leadership, the Axis bank has been named as the third largest bank in terms of total assets and the fourth largest bank in terms of market capitalization. She is known for one of the best woman entrepreneurs. Axis Bank has launched several ways for bringing all the attributes together to make a successful bank in the country.

A glance at Shikha’s life
Shikha was born on 19thNovember in the year 1958. She was the daughter of an officer in the Indian Army. By this her education was pursued from several schools in the country. She loved to study physics but the subject was not available in LSR so she continued in Economics. She completed her BA in Economics from the Lady Shri Ram College for Women (LSR) in Delhi. Later she pursued MBA from IIM Ahmedabad. She has done post-graduation diploma in Software Technology from the National Centre for Software Technology in Mumbai.


Initially she worked as a Non-Executive and Non-Independent Director of First source Solutions Ltd. and was the Independent Director of ACC Ltd. She had built a strong reputation in the financial sector starting with the ICICI Bank. She was responsible for various businesses that were set up by ICICI Securities. It had set up the joint venture between ICICI and JP Morgan. In 1997 she became the Managing Director & CEO of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company.

Shikha married Sanjay Sharma, who was her batch mate in IIM Ahmedabad. He was the Chief Executive Officer of Tata Interactive Systems. They have childrenTilak and Tvisha.She was appointed as MD & CEO of Axis Bank in the year 2009. Under her, the Bank’s stock has grown up till 30 %. She increased the network by increasing the number of ATMs and expanding private banks. Today, Axis bank is known as the Outstanding Corporate Foundation.


Awards
Shikha has earned many awards which have given her a greater recognition. She is known as one of the Indian Express Most Powerful Indians. Some of them are:
In 2007, she was awarded Entrepreneur of the Year at the E&Y Entrepreneur Awards.
In 2008, she was conferred with Businesswoman of the Year at the Economic Times Awards.
In 2011, she was recognized as Business Today ‘Hall of Fame’, Fortune Global and India list of 50 Most Powerful Women in Business and Finance Asia’s Top 20 Women in Finance.
In 2012, she was awardedTransformational Business Leader of the Year at AIMA’s Managing India Awards,Woman Leader of the year at Bloomberg UTV Financial Leadership Awards and Business world’s Banker of the Year Award.
She is also known as the Asia’s 50 Power Business Women by the Forbes list and Most Influential Women by India Today Power List. She is also the Outstanding Businesswoman of the Year.