Ashu Suyash broke all the typical ‘finance being a male-dominated sector’ assumption by becoming the leader of the country’s biggest brand names in the sector.
Being the first ever woman head of the country’s largest asset management company, L&T Investment Management, in her former role, Ashu Suyash took over as the CEO of the credit rating agency, Crisil in 2016. And this is just one of the many accomplishments this leader has had under her belt.
‘Composed, articulate and compassionate’ is how people describe Ashu, who took over the helm of the company with mixed reactions. She is the first ‘outsider’ to be appointed CEO, as opposed to the fact that all former CEOs were internally promoted to the position. However, the numbers speak for themselves. In a short span of time and despite having very little experience in a rating agency, practical and grounded Ashu built on her strengths and took the company on a growth trajectory of 14.4 per cent in consolidated net profit and 10.9 per cent consolidated total income in the December 2016 quarter.
A people-oriented person, during her stint in Fidelity as the MD and country head of the asset management business that she help set up in 2005, she managed the acquisition transaction between the Fidelity’s Mutual Fund assets and L&T MF, where she made sure every single person is retained from the team.
As the current head of Crisil, Ashu has brought in good numbers to the block. She emphasises on technology and IP-oriented products with expansion into the overseas market. Under her leadership, Crisil won consultancy contracts to provide such advice for five of Maharashtra’s forthcoming smart cities. Moreover, the company developed a new credit rating framework for infrastructure projects in order to facilitate greater participation by long-term investors and lenders based on the ‘expected loss’ (EL) methodology. She has seen the world from both the sides — as a corporate banker and an asset manager and is often complimented on her enormous knowledge in the field by her peers. Ashu helped the company diversify into areas like risk change management with the launch of new tools such as CI360, to help clients analyse competitors’ performance.
Ashu’s successful transitions from Citigroup to Fidelity and later Fidelity to L&T and now Crisil demonstrates her ability to win hearts in every corner of the office. A mother of two girls, Ashu knows how to maintain a harmonious balance between work and family. She shared in an interview with a business magazine saying, “I found it very hard to manage after my girls were born and wanted to leave my career and perhaps pick it up later... In fact, at one point, I actually resigned! While I served my notice period, my husband and my boss constantly asked me to reconsider. If that had not happened who knows I may not be where I am today.”
BW Reporters
Naina Sood is a Economics graduate and has done her post graduation in International economics and Trade. She has deep interests in Indian economy and reforms