Reliance Industries Appoints Veteran Banker K V Kamath As Independent Director For 5 Years

Reliance Strategic Investments Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Mukesh Ambani-led telecom-to-retail conglomerate, will be renamed as Jio Financial Services Limited

Reliance Industries (RIL) on Friday announced that the company has appointed veteran banker and Chairman of the National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development K V Kamath as an independent director on its board for a period of five years.

In a regulatory filing, RIL said, "K V Kamath is not related to any Director of the Company. He satisfies the criteria of independence prescribed under the Companies Act, 2013 and SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015.”

Reliance Strategic Investments Limited (RSIL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Mukesh Ambani-led telecom-to-retail conglomerate, also named Kamath as an independent director and non-executive chairman. As intimated earlier, RSIL will be renamed as Jio Financial Services Limited (JFSL) and listed pursuant to a scheme of de-merger approved by the Board of Directors.

Kamath will continue as the independent director and non-executive chairman of JFSL "upon consummation of the Scheme and listing of JFSL on stock exchanges", RIL said.

Kamath started his career in 1971 with ICICI. In 1988, he moved to the Asian Development Bank and spent several years in South East Asia before returning to the ICICI as its managing director (MD) and CEO in 1996. After the company's merger with ICICI Bank, he was the MD and CEO of ICICI Bank.

Under Kamath's leadership, ICICI transformed itself into a diversified, technology-driven financial services group across banking, insurance and asset management in India, with a global presence, RIL said in a statement. While he retired as MD and CEO in 2009, he continued as the ICICI Bank chairman till 2015.

Kamath has also served as chairman of Infosys. In 2015 he was appointed as the first president of the New Development Bank set up by the BRICS countries from where he retired in 2020. He is currently the Chairman of the National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (NaBFID).

Kamath was awarded the Padma Bhushan, one of India’s highest civilian honours in 2008. Kamath is a mechanical engineer and completed his postgraduation in business administration from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.