Mumbai: Kotak Mahindra Group (Kotak) today announced two key appointments for their Insurance businesses. Effective 1st May 2021, Kotak Mahindra Life Insurance Company Limited (Kotak Life) will be headed by Mahesh Balasubramanian as Managing Director (MD) while Kotak General Insurance Company Limited (Kotak GI) will be led by Suresh Agarwal as MD & CEO.
These moves come as G Murlidhar completes a 10-year term as the Managing Director of Kotak Life and superannuates on 30th April 2021. He is one of the founding members of Kotak Life, and has played a pivotal role in not only growing the company to be profitable but also establishing it as a very high quality standard company, making Kotak Life amongst the leading Life Insurance companies in India. Under his leadership, Kotak Life posted amongst the best margins in the industry during the period 2018-20, leading to an Embedded Value of Rs 8,388 crore as on 31st March 2020.
Mahesh Balasubramanian, MD & CEO of Kotak GI, who has been heading Kotak’s General Insurance business since 2014, will now take charge of the Life Insurance business as Managing Director. With nearly three decades of experience in the financial services industry, Mahesh has managed businesses across Retail Assets, Retail Liabilities and Insurance. He has built a strong leadership team and a robust risk management culture at Kotak GI, making it one of the most sought after companies to work for.
Mahesh is succeeded by Suresh Agarwal, who is appointed as the new MD & CEO of Kotak GI. Prior to this, Suresh headed Kotak Life’s distribution network and has played a vital role in establishing a vast pan-India network for the company. Suresh started his journey with Kotak as a management trainee in 1995 and was part of the corporate finance division at Kotak Mahindra Finance Ltd. He has been associated with the life insurance business for over 20 years and was responsible for strategic initiatives of the organisation. During his tenure as Chief Distribution Officer, he built a strong business quality culture at Kotak Life, which has led the company to be among the industry-best in business health parameters like persistency, conservation, claims settlement and surrenders.
Gaurang Shah, Whole-time Director and Group President, Kotak Mahindra Bank Ltd. said, “G Murlidhar is part of our first generation of leaders. We thank him for his tireless service over the last 20 years in establishing and growing Kotak Life to new heights. We are delighted to welcome Mahesh and Suresh in their new roles as they take on the mantle to sustainably scale Kotak’s Insurance businesses.”
Comments are closed.