Shanti Ekambaram tops 2025 Candere Hurun India Women Leaders List of Women Professionals

By: WE Staff | Thursday, 5 June 2025

• Shanti Ekambaram, Deputy Managing Director of Kotak Mahindra Bank, was named as a Top Women Professional
• Shanti leads a company valued at Rs 3.82 lakh crore
• A seasoned executive, she is among the few women currently holding a top executive role in the Indian banking sector

Shanti Ekambaram, Deputy Managing Director of Kotak Mahindra Bank, has been named the top woman professional in the 2025 Candere Hurun India Women Leaders List, leading a company valued at Rs 3.82 lakh crore and advancing digital banking and financial inclusion.

Shanti is one of the longest-serving executives at Kotak Mahindra Bank, and recently announced her retirement plan on October 31, 2025. Joined the Kotak Group in 1991, she is among the few women currently holding top executive roles in the Indian banking sector. She has been instrumental in building the group from a financial services company into a top-class private sector bank. She is a seasoned executive with expertise in investment banking, capital markets, corporate banking, treasury, and consumer banking, and was promoted to Deputy MD in 2024.

A list of 97 influential women in nine various sectors, including professionals, first-generation wealth creators, next-generation leaders, investors, young women leaders, philanthropists, artists, most-followed influencer founders, and most-followed celebrity investors, has been ranked in the 2025 Candere Hurun India Women Leaders list. The ranking highlights the growing impact of women in leadership roles, particularly in financial services, with 23 women leaders.

The top professionals' list includes Shanti Ekambaram, Kotak Mahindra Bank; Parminder Chopra, Power Finance Corporation; Vibha Padalkar, HDFC Life Insurance; Hina Nagarajan, United Spirits (Diageo India); A. Manimekhalai, Union Bank of India.