Piyush Gupta is a banker in Singapore. He is the current chief executive officer and director of DBS Group, a position he has held since 9 November 2009. Gupta has been credited with leading the banking group to become a leading Asian financial services group. In 2014, Gupta was named as the Singapore Business Leader of the Year by CNBC. In 2013, Gupta was named "Best CEO, Asia Pacific" by The Asian Banker, and "Best CEO, Singapore" by Asiamoney and The Business Times.
In 1982, Gupta started his career at Citibank India at the age of 22, as a management trainee. He did several assignments with Citibank India, eventually being chief of staff to the India head, responsible for finance, technology, human resources and strategy. Gupta then moved to Singapore in 1991, as chief of staff to the Asia head. Gupta held positions of increasing responsibilities, moving into various senior management roles across Citi's corporate and consumer banking businesses, including head of strategic planning for emerging markets and regional director for global transaction services for Asia Pacific, before being posted to Indonesia in 1998, as Citi's country manager. In 2000, he left Citigroup to start up a dot-com company, an internet portal called GO4i.com but closed his venture and re-joined Citigroup in 2001. Gupta served as country officer in Malaysia from 2002 to 2007, where he helped built up Citigroup's branch network, before assuming the role of country officer in Singapore and the head of the Corporate and Investment Bank in ASEAN. In 2008, Gupta was appointed the chief executive officer of Citibank in South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand. In 2009, he left Citigroup to join DBS Group as chief executive officer.
DBS Group
Gupta is currently the chief executive officer of DBS Group Holdings and DBS Bank Ltd.. Since Gupta joined DBS in November 2009, the bank has logged 19 quarters of consistent growth, culminating in record earnings for the first six months of 2014, crossing the SGD2b mark for the first time.
DBS strategy and advocacy
Gupta has refocused the strategy of DBS towards an Asia-centric commercial bank to capitalise on the region's surging megatrends. At a 2013 Institute of International Finance meeting in Washington, Gupta stated " a license to operate not from the government but the civil society at large. Just saying we’re keeping our shareholder and clients happy isn’t good enough". Gupta is also an advocate of Digital Banking, and believes that the industry's digital strategy will be key to its fate. In an interview with Forbes Asia, he stated that a Digital Strategy is "actually going to make the difference between banks that will survive and banks that will not survive." At the 2015 Swift International Banking Operations Seminar opening plenary, Gupta called on his peers to embrace the "new world order of technology", a world where innovations such as cloud computing and peer-to-peer services are forcing banks to rethink their businesses and infrastructures. Gupta mentioned "People talk about disruption, but the word to think of is transformation, which implies the incumbent can make a change. The reality is that all of us have an opportunity to lead the transformation, to make a real change in the customer experience. There is no one in a better position to do this than we are." At various forums and conferences, he has spoken about organisations building a "university of talent" or growing their "own timber" and on the importance of diversity including gender diversity.
External boards and appointments
Gupta's external appointments have included being a member of the Indonesian Government's Debt Restructuring Committee, chairman of the Foreign Banks' Association in Indonesia and board positions on the Kuala Lumpur Business Roundtable, the International School of Kuala Lumpur, AMCHAM Malaysia and AMCHAM Singapore. He is also a past chairman of the financial services committee of the US-ASEAN Business Council. He currently serves as the deputy chairman of SPRING Singapore, as a council member of the Asian Bureau of Finance and Economic Research, and as a member of the Group of Experts to the ASEAN Capital Markets Forum. Gupta also serves on the boards of the Institute of International Finance, Washington, The Institute of Banking and Finance, Dr. Goh Keng SweeScholarship Fund, and the MasterCard Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa Regional Advisory Board. He is the chairman of the advisory board for the Sim Kee Boon Institute for Financial Economics, and a council member of The Association of Banks in Singapore. Gupta is also a Managing Council member of Indian Business-leaders’ Roundtable.
Private life
Gupta enjoys reading and bird watching since his youth. He plays golf and badminton, and does crosswords. Gupta is an ambassador for CanKids India, a non-governmental organisation that supports victims of childhood cancer. His wife, Ruchira, is a physiotherapist, and is actively involved with ageing and geriatric care in Singapore.
