Vishakha joined the ICICI Group in 1993 and has vast experience in the areas of strategy, treasury & markets, proprietary equity investing and management of long-term equity investments, structured finance and corporate & project finance. She led the team that planned and executed the merger of ICICI and ICICI Bank in 2002. From 2002 to 2005, she was responsible for the Bank’s structured finance and global markets businesses, and its financial institutions relationships.

She is credited with being a key driver and enabler of the debt securitization market in India, and with building the Bank’s global markets business. From 2005-2007, she was the CFO of ICICI Bank. Under her leadership, the Bank raised close to US$ 7 billion in equity capital and several billion dollars of debt financing. She led landmark fundraising deals like ICICI Bank’s US$ 5 billion equity offering in 2007, and the first hybrid capital issuance by an Indian bank in 2006. In October 2007, she was elevated to the Board of ICICI Bank’s general insurance subsidiary, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company.  In April 2009 she took over as Managing Director & CEO of ICICI Venture Funds Management Co. Ltd. She heads all practice areas of ICICI Venture and chairs the Investment Committee of all funds.

Vishakha has a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce and is also a Chartered Accountant. She was selected as ‘Young Global Leader’ for the year 2007 by World Economic Forum. She has also been conferred the award for “Most Powerful Women in Indian Business” thrice (2007, 2009 & 2010) by Business Today. She received the India CFO Award in 2006 from IMA for excellence in finance in a large corporate and CA Corporate Leader Award in 2008 from ICAI.

Vishakha is a member of Aspen Institute for “India Leadership Initiative”

ICICI Venture

ICICI Venture is one of the largest and successful alternate asset firms in India with funds under management of over USD 2 billion. It has been a pioneer in the Indian alternative asset industry since its establishment in1988, having managed various funds over multiple economic and investment cycles. The Firm was awarded the Best Private Equity Firm in India Award for 2007, and then again for 2008, by PEI Group, UK.

Over the years, ICICI Venture has developed broad expertise and built an enviable portfolio of companies across sectors, including Life Sciences, Information Technology, Media, Manufacturing, Retail, Financial Services and Real Estate. ICICI Venture is a wholly owned subsidiary of ICICI Bank, the largest private sector financial services group in India.

Currently, the firm has 5 practice areas:
• Private Equity
• Real Estate
• Mezzanine
• Infrastructure
• Special Situations (in strategic alliance with Apollo Global Management of US)