Arundhatti Bhattacharya

Arundhatti Bhattacharya

Arundhatti Bhattacharya is an Indian banker. She is the first woman to be the Chairperson of State Bank of India. In 2015, she was listed as the 30th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes.

Bhattacharya is the first woman to lead an India-based Fortune 500 company.initially she joined SBI in 1977 as probationary officer at the age of 22 years. She has held several positions during her 36-year career with the bank including working in foreign exchange, treasury, retail operations, human resources and investment banking. This included positions like chief executive of the bank's merchant banking arm- State Bank of India Capital Markets; chief general manager in charge of new projects. She has also served at the bank's New York office. She has been involved in the launch of several new businesses such as SBI General Insurance, SBI Custodial Services and the SBI Macquarie Infrastructure Fund. She succeeded Pratip Chaudhuri, as Chairperson, who retired 30 Sep. She introduced a two-year sabbatical policy for women employees for child or elder care. This Women's day she is thinking of introducing free vaccination against cervical cancer to all her woman employees.

In 2015, she was named the 30th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes. This is her first time being ranked on the list. In the same year, she was ranked among the FP Top 100 Global Thinkers by Foreign Policy magazine. She was named the 4th most powerful women in Asia Pacific by Fortune. Bhattacharya was named the first female (and youngest) chair at the government-owned State Bank of India in 2013 after nearly four decades of service.