What is Kavita Kulkarni's new role?

Chief Technology and Operations Officer for India and South Asia at Standard Chartered, based in Mumbai.

Where did she work before?

Barclays Bank, as Managing Director and Chief Information Officer for private banking and wealth management.

People

Standard Chartered Appoints Kavita Kulkarni as CTOO for India and South Asia

Q: What will she oversee?

Execution of the bank's technology and operations strategy across India and South Asia.

Ad Tribe! Bureau49 mins ago2 min read

Kavita Kulkarni, Chief Technology and Operations Officer for India and South Asia at Standard Chartered

Standard Chartered has appointed Kavita Kulkarni as Chief Technology and Operations Officer for India and South Asia. Based in Mumbai, she joins the India Country Management Team and will oversee execution of the bank's technology and operations strategy across the region.

Appointee: Kavita Kulkarni
Role: Chief Technology and Operations Officer, India and South Asia
Based: Mumbai, joining the India Country Management Team
Joins from: Barclays Bank, as Managing Director and Chief Information Officer for private banking and wealth management
Experience: more than two decades across banking, wealth management and technology, in India, the UK and the US
Education: computer science engineering, Karnataka University; MBA in finance, NYU Stern

An AI Track Record, Not an AI Title

The detail that distinguishes this appointment from the general run of bank technology hires is what she was doing at Barclays. As Chief Information Officer for private banking and wealth management she led global technology and operations teams and worked on adopting artificial intelligence across delivery cycles.

That is a specific and comparatively rare thing to have on a record. A great deal of banking AI experience amounts to pilots and proofs of concept; embedding it into delivery cycles for a live wealth business is an operational discipline rather than an innovation exercise, and it is the harder half.

What the Bank Says It Wants

PD Singh, CEO for India and South Asia at Standard Chartered, tied the hire to client experience rather than to infrastructure, saying that as the bank continues to invest in innovation and strengthen its capabilities, Kulkarni's expertise combined with her global leadership experience will help deliver simpler, faster and more resilient banking experiences for clients while supporting long-term growth ambitions in the region.

The three adjectives in that sentence are the brief. Simpler, faster and more resilient are operations outcomes, not technology ones, and the CTOO structure exists precisely because banks have stopped treating those as separate problems.