Quick Facts
Biography
Ajay Srinivasan (born November 2, 1963) is the Chief Executive of Aditya Birla Capital Limited (ABCL) which is the holding company of all financial services businesses belonging to the Aditya Birla Group. Since he started his career in 1987, Srinivasan has served in various capacities with ICICI Group, ITC Group and Prudential plc including board positions prior to joining the Aditya Birla Group in 2007.
Early life and Career
Srinivasan was brought up in New Delhi, India. He was a student at St. Columba's School, Delhi and St. Stephen's College, Delhi prior to pursuing his MBA at Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad in 1987.
His first job was at ICICI involving project appraisals. Thereafter, he joined ITC's financial unit initially managing their in-house funds. Srinivasan's first major leadership role involved settling up of ITC Threadneedle Mutual Fund, where he was credited with establishing the business amidst competition from several new players in the market.
He later went on to become Managing Director at ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund in 1998. In 2001, Prudential plc, joint venture partners in ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund decided to move Srinivasan to Prudential Asset Management in Hong Kong where he spent seven years. At Prudential, he was in-charge of their Asia business spanning ten markets and managing $60 billion in assets.
Aditya Birla Capital
In 2007, Srinivasan joined Aditya Birla Group as Chief Executive-Financial Services. He was hired by group Chairman, Kumar Mangalam Birla with the mandate of taking the group's financial services business to the next level. When he joined the company, it had five business verticals which were collectively loss making and as of 2016 the company had diversified into twelve business verticals collectively making a profit.
Under his leadership, the group started various new business verticals as part of the financial business such as private equity, broking, money management, a health insurance business in joint venture with MMI Holdings Limited, a payments bank in joint venture with group company Idea Cellular, and a housing finance company.
As of 2016, the financial services business had grown more than five times in size since Srinivasan took over as CEO. The Aditya Birla Group announced a plan to restructure its business in 2016. As part of this plan, the financial services business would be listed as a separate entity on stock exchanges under Srinivasan's leadership.
In September 2017, Srinivasan led Aditya Birla Financial Services was restructured as Aditya Birla Capital Limited listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and National Stock Exchange (NSE) after demerging from its parent entity, Aditya Birla Nuvo. This unusual procedure was a deviation from the Initial Public Offering of equity shares companies usually make to turn public.
Personal life
Ajay Srinivasan is married to Mohyna.
Srinivasan is a sports fan and an avid golf and cricket player.