Anup Rau

Anup Rau (born 18 November 1973) is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and Executive Director of Reliance Life Insurance Company Limited, one of the largest life insurance companies in India.^[1] Reliance Life is a joint venture between Reliance Capital Limited and Nippon Life.^[2] His key focus areas at Reliance Life include ensuring a sustainable and profitable growth for the Company with a vision to become the most admired Life Insurance Company in the Country and to strengthen the company's partnership with Nippon Life by adopting their long sustaining values and singular focus on customers. He brings tremendous amounts of energy and belief in ideas that would help realise this vision.^[3] Named as one of the hottest young executive by Business Today,^[4]

Early life

Anup was born in Delhi on November 18, 1973 to Rukmini & Rama Krishna Rau Velamuri. He went to Our Lady of Perpetual Succour High School, The Frank Anthony Public School, Bangalore and Delhi College of Arts and Commerce. After graduating in Economics from Delhi University, he joined Gilson Medical Equipment, a French company, in Delhi as a sales engineer. What attracted him to the job was the promoter's promise to give him a ticket to Paris for training if he would work for a year. Next on his agenda was an MBA degree from Mumbai. Trained for a career in FMCG, he joined ICICI Prudential Life Insurance when opportunity came his way.

Anup has one sister by the name Sarva Velamuri. As a kid he enjoyed playing cricket but then switched to golf for a brief period. He is now content in accompanying his two daughters for short cycle trips. Being an ardent book-lover, he prefers to usher out a busy day in his library at home if he is not out on a culinary adventure.

Career

2000 to 2010 Anup started out in the life insurance industry with ICICI Prudential, where he spent almost a decade. Began as a Branch Manager – Agency, he rapidly rose up the ranks and worked across geographies in various key positions in Sales, Sales Planning & Strategy since their formative years. Interesting anecdotes like travelling to and fro throughout the day in local trains to convert co-passengers into successful life insurance advisors were born here. As a Senior Vice President – Agency Distribution for West and South, Anup was instrumental in building up the Agency business, before he became Head – Bancassurance & Alliances.

2010 to 2013

After about a decade at ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, Anup moved to HDFC Life Insurance to head Sales & Distribution. Under his leadership at HDFC Life, the company enjoyed a consistent top 2 position, achieved among the lowest cost of acquisition in the industry, dominated the Bancassurance channel, fostered the Agency distribution channel that scaled to the top quartile and introduced new distribution channels like Broker and International Business, which also grew to enjoy leadership positions in the industry.

2013 to Present

Anup Rau is the Chief Executive Officer at Reliance Life Insurance Company Limited.^[5] Reliance Life is a joint venture between Reliance Capital Limited and Nippon Life. Within just about a year of his appointment, Reliance Life has propelled back to consistent double digit growth Quarter on Quarter, garnering crucial market share that has seen the company move up from Rank 7 to Rank 5. His key focus areas at Reliance Life include ensuring a sustainable and profitable growth for the Company with a vision to become the most admired Life Insurance Company in the Country and to strengthen the company's partnership with Nippon Life by adopting their long sustaining values and singular focus on customers.^[6] He is widely acknowledged as an inspiring leader with a no-fuss, common-sense approach, who brings tremendous amounts of energy and belief in ideas that would help realise this vision.The company has embarked on a slew of customer service initiatives, leading with a strong campaign against the menace of spurious callers, and getting orphan customers back into the fold.^[7] Anup believes in creating an organisation that is large in scale and aspiration, but thrives on nimble-footedness and responsiveness by nurturing esprit de corps and joie de vivre of a small, close knit team. A philanthropist by nature, he is passionate about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and strongly believes in giving back to the society.

Positions held

• CEO – Reliance Life Insurance^[8]
• Head Sales & Distribution – HDFC Standard Life Insurance
• Senior Vice President – ICICI Prudential Life Insurance
• Head Sales - ICICI Prudential Life Insurance

References

External links