Bandhan Bank gains on bids for stressed assets, new executive director appointment

Kesh was likely candidate based on the recommendation of Nomination and Remuneration Committee (NRC), the candidature was then sent for approval to the central bank, and the Bandhan Bank board in a meeting on March 21 finalised his appointment as a Whole-time Director (Additional Director) of the Bank, designated as ED.

The appointment as Key Managerial Personnel of the Bank is in effect from March 31, 2023 for a period of three years, subject to shareholders approval, it added. Further, Kesh shall hold office as additional director up to the date of the ensuing Annual General Meeting (AGM) or up to three months from the date of his appointment, whichever is earlier.

Who is Ratan Kesh?

52-year-old Kesh has more than 28 years of experience in the Banking and Finance, Manufacturing and Services industries.

As per Bandhan Bank’s statement, Kesh is a “hands-on leader” with “a track record of leading complex operations” in automation, customer experience, transformation, quality improvement and other related functions. He has “helped scale and address operational challenges” at Axis Bank, HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and Yes Bank, it added.

Kesh joined Axis Bank in 2019 to first drive bank-wide operational transformation across business lines. He ideated and scaled up the Artificial Intelligence (AI) COE for the bank which worked towards developing cutting edge new age technology enabled interventions. He also played active leadership role in the Crisis Management Taskforce during the COVID-19 pandemic and ensured smooth banking operations in work-from-home model. In 2020, his role was enhanced to lead end-to-end retail operations portfolio covering liabilities, assets, cards, digital, wealth, NRI, ATM and bank-wide reconciliation, customer service call centre and service recovery.

At HDFC Bank, Kesh was among the first to lead the successful launch and implementation of ‘Service CRM’, and led aggressive growth as a product head for premier banking, current account and trade and forex business. He was also Chief Customer Experience Officer in Yes Bank and additionally took charge as Head of Operation Risk.

Prior to Banking, Kesh has had stints in the Aditya Birla Group and RPG Group in India and abroad in various roles in design department, project management, balanced scorecard, quality assurance, organisation-wide transformation programs and technical services.

As for education. He is a BE Mechanical graduate from NIT Durgapur; an Advanced Quality Engineer from Quality Council of Indiana, USA; and possess a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management from NMIMS, Mumbai.

He was trained on Six Sigma by GE and Asian Institute of Technology and worked as Six Sigma Black Belt (BB) and Master Black Belt (MBB) in early years of his career. He has also completed a Business Leadership Course from IIM, Ahmedabad; and a Strategic Agility Leadership Course from Harvard Business School.

Kesh was recognised as one of the 50 most talented Quality Professionals in India by the World Quality Congress and India's top 25 Emerging Tech Leaders by BIOCON Network in collaboration with Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India.