Uday Kotak (born 15 March 1959) is an Indian banker and the founder of Kotak Mahindra Bank, one of India’s largest private-sector banks. He started a small bill-discounting business in 1985 with money borrowed from family and friends, and it became the first non-banking finance company in India to be given a banking licence, in 2003. He led the bank as chief executive until 2023 and is among the richest people in India.
Quick Facts
| Full name | Uday Suresh Kotak |
| Born | 15 March 1959, Bombay (now Mumbai), India |
| Age | 67 |
| Occupation | Banker |
| Known for | Founder of Kotak Mahindra Bank |
| Education | Sydenham College, Mumbai (B.Com.); Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (MBA 1982) |
| Spouse | Pallavi Kotak |
| Children | 2 (Jay and Dhaval) |
Early Life
Kotak was born into a Gujarati family that traded in cotton and lived as a joint family of about sixty people under one roof, which he has called “capitalism at work and socialism at home”. He was a keen cricketer, but at 20 he was hit on the head by a ball in a Kanga League match and needed emergency surgery, which ended his sporting hopes. He took an MBA at the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute and turned down a job at a multinational to start on his own.
Career
In 1985, aged 26, he founded Kotak Capital Management Finance with about ₹30 lakh, most of it from family and friends. Anand Mahindra and his father invested the following year, and the firm was renamed Kotak Mahindra Finance. It grew through bill discounting, car loans, stockbroking, investment banking and mutual funds, and formed joint ventures with Goldman Sachs in the 1990s.
In 2003 the Reserve Bank of India allowed the company to convert into a bank. Kotak expanded it carefully, avoiding the bad loans that hurt many rivals. In 2015 it took over ING Vysya Bank in an all-share deal, which gave it a large branch network in South India. He had a long dispute with the central bank over how quickly he should reduce his own shareholding, settled in 2020.
Kotak stepped down as managing director and chief executive on 1 September 2023, a few months before his term was due to end, and remains on the board as a non-executive director. Ashok Vaswani succeeded him in 2024.
Public Roles
After the collapse of the infrastructure lender IL&FS in 2018 the government appointed Kotak chairman of its new board to oversee the rescue. He headed a SEBI committee on corporate governance in 2017 and was president of the Confederation of Indian Industry in 2020–21.
Personal Life
Kotak is married to Pallavi, and they have two sons. His elder son, Jay, works at the bank. He holds about a quarter of the bank’s shares.
Awards and Honours
Frequently Asked Questions
When and where was Uday Kotak born?
Uday Kotak was born on 15 March 1959 in Bombay (now Mumbai), India and is 67 years old.
What is Uday Kotak known for?
Known for: Founder of Kotak Mahindra Bank.
Featured image: Uday Kotak (right) and Sir Gerry Grimstone, co-chairs of the India–UK Financial Partnership, with Finance Minister Arun Jaitley (left), New Delhi, 7 November 2016. Photo by Ministry of Finance of India, licensed under Government Open Data License – India, via Wikimedia Commons.
