Narayanan Vaghul is one of the most eminent bankers of India. He was awarded Padma Bhushan in the Trade and Industry category in 2010.
Born in 1936 in a remote village in South India, he was second in a family of eight children. He sstudied at Ramakrishna School, Chennai and graduated from Loyola College, Madras University in the late 1950s.
As he was under age for the IAS examination when he graduated, he joined the State Bank of India as an officer. He served in State Bank of India's branches in Trichi and Madras (city now renamed as Chennai) before moving to Bombay (city now renamed as Mumbai) in the 1960s.
As an Officer in the Personnel Department in the State Bank of India at Bombay, his people managmement and problem solving abilities impressed then State Bank of India Chairman Mr. R K Talwar.
After Mr Talwar's retirement, Mr. Vaghul resigned from the State Bank of India and took up a teaching position at the National Institute of Bank Management (NIBM). Within two years, he became its Director.
In 1978, he became the Executive Director at Central Bank of India and served for two years there.
Appointed as Chairman and Managing Director of the Bank of India in 1981, he became one of India's youngest Chairman of a nationalised bank at the age of 44. He was the Chairman of the Bank of India till 1984.
In 1985, he was appointed as Chairman of the then Industrial Credit and Investment Corporation of India (ICICI), the financial institution now known as ICICI Bank. He still continues as its non-executive Chairman . Under his leadership, ICICI has grown from a development financial institution to India's second largest bank.
He was awarded by the Business Man of the Year in 1991 by Indian business journal 'Business India' and was recently given the lifetime achievement award by the Times publications.
He is a great orator and his speeches on banking and spritiualism were his specialaities.
Currently (2007) he also serves as a director in many major companies of India including Wipro (since June, 1997), Mahindra & Mahindra, Apollo Hospitals and Mittal steel . He was also a visiting professor [1] of Economics and International Business at the Stern Business School, New York University [2].