Piyush Gupta

Early life and education

Gupta was born in India to Dr. R.S. Gupta and Minnie Gupta, one of 3 children. He attended St. Columba’s High School before going on to pursue a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Degree in Economics from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University. After graduating, he enrolled at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad for his Post-Graduate Diploma in Management.

Early career and Citigroup

In 1982, Gupta started his career at Citibank India at the age of 22, as a Management Trainee. He did several assignments with Citibank India, eventually being Chief of Staff to the India head, responsible for Finance, Technology, Human Resources and Strategy. Gupta then moved to Singapore in 1991, as Chief of Staff to the Asia Head. Gupta held positions of increasing responsibilities, moving into various senior management roles across Citi’s corporate and consumer banking businesses, including Head of Strategic Planning for Emerging Markets and Regional Director for Global Transaction Services for Asia Pacific, before being posted to Indonesia in 1998, as Citi’s country manager. In 2000, he left Citigroup to start up a dot-com company, an internet portal called GO4i.com but closed his venture and re-joined Citigroup in 2001. Gupta served as country officer in Malaysia from 2002-2007, where he helped built up Citigroup’s branch network, before assuming the role of country officer in Singapore and the head of the Corporate and Investment Bank in ASEAN. In 2008, Gupta was appointed the Chief Executive Officer of Citibank in South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand. He left his 27-year career at Citigroup to join DBS Group as Chief Executive Officer in 2009.

DBS Group

Gupta is currently the Chief Executive Officer and Director of DBS Group Holdings and DBS Bank Ltd., as well as Director of DBS’ subsidiary companies, The Islamic Bank of Asia Limited and DBS Bank (Hong Kong) Limited. Since Gupta joined DBS in November 2009, the bank has logged 19 quarters of consistent growth, culminating in record earnings for the first six months of 2014, crossing the SGD2b mark for the first time.

Thought leadership

Gupta has refocused the strategy of DBS towards an Asia-centric commercial bank player to capitalise on the region’s surging megatrends. He is a long time bull of Asia, advocating the long-term fundamentals of the region in various public forums. He has earned a seat at the high table of international finance, where he contributes to the broad development of the sector. More than once, he has expounded on the need for the industry to think long-term and focus on creating sustainable growth in economies and contributing to finding solutions for social needs. At a 2013 Institute of International Finance meeting in Washington, Gupta stated "[Banks receive] a license to operate not from the government but the civil society at large. Just saying we’re keeping our shareholder and clients happy isn’t good enough". Gupta is also a strong advocate of Digital Banking, and believes that the industry’s digital strategy will be key to its fate. In an interview with Forbes Asia, he stated that a Digital Strategy is “actually going to make the difference between banks that will survive and banks that will not survive.” At the 2015 Swift International Banking Operations Seminar (Sibos) opening plenary, Gupta called on his peers to embrace the "new world order of technology", a world where innovations such as cloud computing and peer-to-peer services are forcing banks to rethink their businesses and infrastructures. Gupta mentioned "People talk about disruption, but the word to think of is transformation, which implies the incumbent can make a change. The reality is that all of us have an opportunity to lead the transformation, to make a real change in the customer experience. There is no one in a better position to do this than we are." Gupta also shares regularly on leadership and talent management. His role in building a unique culture at DBS has been used as an example of blending Eastern and Western organisational styles. At various forums and leadership conferences, he has spoken about organisations building a “university of talent” or growing their “own timber” and on the importance of diversity including gender diversity.

Private life

Gupta enjoys reading and bird watching since his youth. He plays golf and badminton, and does crosswords. Gupta is an ambassador for CanKids India, a non-governmental organisation that supports victims of childhood cancer. His wife, Ruchira, is a physiotherapist, and is actively involved with ageing and geriatric care in Singapore.