Madhabi Puri Buch: The First Woman Chairperson Of Sebi | Know More About Her

Buch assumed charge on March 1. The Appointments Committee of Cabinet approved her appointment for a term of three years

Madhabi Puri Buch (56) has served as a former whole-time member of the Sebi between April 2017 and October 2021. Image: Getty

New Delhi: The elevation of Madhabi Puri Buch, who has been appointed as the chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), assumed significance as she became the first woman to lead the market regulator in the country.

The government on Monday named Buch as the next chairperson of the Sebi as current Chairman Ajay Tyagi’s term ended on February 28 (Monday).

She takes over from Tyagi, a 1984 batch IAS officer of Himachal Pradesh cadre, who became the chairman on March 1, 2017. Tyagi has received two extensions after the end of his three-year term.

Buch assumed charge on March 1 (Tuesday).

According to a notification by the department of personnel and training (DoPT), the Appointments Committee of Cabinet approved her appointment for a term of three years.

Apart from being the first woman chief of the Sebi, Buch also became the first person from the private sector to head one of the most important financial institutions in the country.

Buch’s Experiences

Madhabi Puri Buch (56) has served as a former whole-time member of the Sebi between April 2017 and October 2021. According to reports, she has around three decades of experience under her belt.

Buch, who has three decades of experience in the financial market, started her career in 1989 with ICICI Bank. She worked in various profiles for 12 years, including in corporate finance, branding and treasury, and loans. According to her LinkedIn profile, she headed the marketing and sales department for five years from 1997 to 2002 and was then head of product development from 2002 to 2003. She has also held the post of head of operations (2004 to 2006).

Later Buch moved to ICICI Securities, where she became the managing director (MD) and chief executive officer (CEO) from February 2009 to May 2011. She was also an executive director on the board of ICICI Bank.

In 2011, Buch joined the Greater Pacific Capital LLP in Singapore. She is the founder-director of Agora Advisory Pvt Ltd. She worked as the non-executive director for Idea Cellular from 2011 to 2017. Apart from this, she held multiple non-executive director roles in Zansar Technologies, Innoven Capital, and Max Healthcare, and also served as an independent director of the Indian School of Development Management (ISDM).

She also worked as a consultant at the New Development Bank, set up by the BRICS bloc of nations, in Shanghai for a period of three years. Before that she worked as a lecturer at West Cheshire College, England, for two years between 1993 and 1995.

Buch, who has been the whole-time member of Sebi, handled portfolios such as collective investment schemes, surveillance, and investment management during her tenure at the Sebi and became a part of a seven-member technology committee formed to help the Sebi design in-house technological systems.

Her LinkedIn profile says that she has completed her schooling at Fort Convent in Mumbai and Convent of Jesus and Mary in Delhi. Then she did her graduation in Mathematics from St Stephen’s College, New Delhi. She is an alumna of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad.