Leo Puri, a former CEO of UTI Mutual Fund, is set to take over as the chairman of JP Morgan’s South Asia and Southeast Asia business, a spokesperson for the global financial services group told VCCircle.
Puri will take over from current chairperson Kalpana Morparia, who will retire in the first quarter of next year, the spokesperson said. As part of his responsibilities, Puri will cover JP Morgan’s external stakeholders including key clients, regulators, and industry bodies.
The move will also be part of a larger reshuffle at JP Morgan. Murli Maiya, who has been with the firm for 26 years, will take over as CEO for South and Southeast Asia and will report to Asia Pacific CEO Filippo Gori.
Separately, Madhav Kalyan will take over from Morparia as the senior country officer for India. He will also continue in his position as the CEO of JP Morgan Chase Bank, India, the spokesperson said.
Morparia has agreed to stay on at the global financial services group till the first quarter of next year to facilitate a smooth transition of all her responsibilities.
An alumnus of Mumbai’s Government Law College, Morparia spent over 30 years of her career at the Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India (ICICI), which is now known as ICICI Bank. She took part in several major projects during her three-decade stint at ICICI, including on the JP Morgan-ICICI Bank joint venture in 1991.
She began her association with JP Morgan in 2008 when she took over as the head of its Indian investment banking operations.
Puri, meanwhile, was associated with UTI Mutual Fund till September 2018. After that, he joined the boards of Hindustan Unilever and Dr. Reddy’s as an independent director.
An alumnus of the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, Puri has worked in the UK, US and Asia over a career spanning three decades. He has also been a senior partner at McKinsey & Company and a managing director at Warburg Pincus.
In March last year, he joined the board of Chennai-based non-banking finance company Northern Arc Capital (formerly IFMR Capital Finance Ltd) as its first independent, non-executive chairman.