Leo Puri to take over as Chairman of JP Morgan

Veteran banker Kalpana Morparia, Chairman, South and South-East Asia at JP Morgan, plans to retire after nearly 12 years with the investment banking firm. She will be succeeded by Leo Puri.

In a release on Wednesday, the bank said Morparia has conveyed her desire to retire. It also announced organisational changes for South Asia and South-East Asia and said Morparia has agreed to stay with the firm until the first quarter of 2021, and will oversee the smooth transition of her responsibilities.

Puri, former Managing Director of UTI Asset Management Company, will become Chairman of South and South-East Asia when he joins the firm in the first quarter of 2021, it added.

Top-level changes

Meanwhile, Murli Maiya will take over as the CEO for South and South-East Asia in the first quarter of next year. He was most recently co-head of Investment Banking Coverage for the Asia-Pacific region.

It also announced that Madhav Kalyan will be Senior Country Officer for India in the first quarter of 2021, subject to necessary regulatory approvals and will report to Maiya.

Kalyan will continue as CEO of JP Morgan Chase Bank, India, and will also oversee representative offices in Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Morparia, 70, was appointed as CEO, JP Morgan India in 2008 and, in 2016, she was elevated to a regional role.

A career banker, prior to joining JP Morgan, she was Vice-Chair, Insurance, Securities and Asset Management and Chief Strategy and Communications Officer — ICICI Group. She had joined the erstwhile ICICI Ltd in 1975 and was elevated to its Board of Directors in 2001. Morparia retired from the board of ICICI Bank in 2007 as its Joint Managing Director.

She also serves as an independent director on the boards of several Indian companies.

The changes come at a time when the Supreme Court had allowed the Enforcement Directorate to attach properties of JP Morgan in the now-defunct Amrapali Group case.