“"Do your duty come what may, Trust in God and do the right"

- Raghu Ganapathy
(Manager - Kuwait Finance House)

by-N.C.Mohandoss

- This constant refrain of my mother has been a great source of guidance and strength to me in my life. In school, we had a short story in Sanskrit which was titled 'Iswarah yat karoti, shobhanameva karoti' – which means that 'whatever God does, He always does for the good' – and I have personally experienced this eternal truth in different stages in my life. Whenever we face challenges in life, just leave the problems to God and go about putting in your best efforts – you will always come out successful". Raghu Ganapathy, 55 year dynamic man who works as a Manager in Kuwait Finance House, starts his conversation thus.

Hailing from a modest economic background and with his roots in Palghat district of Kerala, Tamil speaking Ganapathy's father was settled in Delhi since 1945. He retired from a leading company belonging to the Birla industrial group.

Immediately, after completing his graduation in Commerce from
Sri Venkateswara College in Delhi, Ganapathy joined the Central Government in the Ministry of Railways at the insistence of his father. Soon he realized that a mere graduation would not take him too far in his life and career. He, therefore, completed his Masters in Commerce while working. He also enrolled for the professional Cost Accounting course with the Institute of Costs & Works Accountants of India.

Meanwhile, Ganapathy's ambition was to become a civil servant and therefore he appeared for the IAS examinations. "It was not easy", he says, "IAS preparation needs very focused and hard work and balancing it with my work routine was a challenge".

Nevertheless, he qualified in the written examination and appeared in the interview. But he failed to make the final grade. "It was a setback in my career ambition especially when I was already past 25 years of age". But this did not deter him and chose the next best option.

He appeared in the All India competitive examinations conducted by Banking Services Recruitment Boards and selected as a Probationary Officer in Canara Bank, a beginning which was to take him great heights in the banking industry in India. He also completed his Cost Accounting while working in Canara Bank.

After serving in Canara Bank for 10 years, in Delhi, Kanpur and the crime infested region of Etah in UP, Ganapathy joined Standard Chartered Bank in India in 1991 in the Treasury Department. He had a glorious career in Standard Chartered and within a span of six years, his hard work was rewarded and he was appointed as the Chief Financial Officer for the Bank's Indian operations.

In the year 2000, Ganapathy set up Scope International Private Limited, a Chennai based in-house BPO arm of Standard Chartered Bank. He provided leadership to the company as the CEO and Managing Director for the next two years when the Bank's back office operations from 14 countries were migrated to India, thus earning a huge amount of foreign exchange for the country. Later, he was appointed as the CEO and Managing Director for Standard Chartered Finance Ltd., another subsidiary company of Standard Chartered Bank.

In 2004, he took an early retirement and came to Kuwait.

In Kuwait, he joined the KPMG, one of the big 4 global consulting firms, as Head of Financial Risk Management practice. However, his passion for banking proved to be stronger and he moved to Kuwait Finance House in 2006.

Kuwait Finance House (KFH) is a leading Islamic financial institution in the world. Set up in 1977 as a finance company, KFH was granted a banking license in 2004. It is the second largest bank in Kuwait in terms of assets and profits employing over 2000 employees and having banking operations in Bahrain, Malaysia and Turkey, besides Kuwait.

Ganapathy's main responsibility is to help the top management in managing the credit and market risks that the bank faces. 'Risk' and 'Profits' have a symbiotic relationship. Explaining the special features of Islamic banks, whereby 'interest' is neither paid or received by the bank, Ganapathy says that 'Reputation is a very important risk for Islamic Banks since their business is wholly dependent on the public perception of efficiency of operations and the rewards in the form of profit share which the banks gives to the depositors. It is, therefore, important for Islamic Banks to be very careful in balancing the risk and returns for the benefit of all the stake holders." Islamic Banking is a new experience for Ganapathy and he talks about it with the enthusiasm and pride of a young student.

"Problems in life" says Ganapathy "are merely creations of one's emotions and reaction to events and circumstances. They exist only in the minds. Such feelings subsist for a short period of time. And time is a great healer. So one should not get overwhelmed by the problems one encounters in life".

A strong believer in 'teamwork', Ganapathy gives full freedom to his team members, both at home and office, to put in their best efforts. He acts as a guide and a coach and shares the rewards with everyone fairly. "I consider myself to be first among equals" he avers.

Ganapathy proudly proclaims that his wife Mrs. Rajalakshmi is his best advisor. A double graduate in B.Sc Physics and B.Sc Computer Science, Mrs. Rajalakshmi is a qualified yoga teacher as well. She conducts regular yoga classes in Kuwait.

"Values" and not "wealth" is the mainstay of our approach to life. And my wife has been mainly instrumental in embedding this philosophy in me and my children", he adds.

His elder daughter Shruti has completed B.A. in Journalism from City University, London. Son Shreyas has just completed his 12th Board and will be pursuing an Engineering course in Biotechnology from BITS, Pilani, Dubai campus.

Ganapathy is a sort of a linguist. Besides his mother tongue Tamil, Ganapathy is equally at home in English and Hindi. He can handle conversations in Punjabi, Malayalam and Kannada. He has a diploma in French language and has recently completed 3 levels in Arabic.

"I was always drawn to the richness of my mother tongue Tamil" says Ganapathy. While the opportunities to learn Tamil were limited in school, Ganapathy selected Tamil as his second language in Sri Venkateswara College in Delhi, one of the very few colleges offering this option. He gained proficiency in Tamil literature. Besides, Ganapathy has been an amateur dramatist having acted in a number of Tamil plays in Delhi. This also helped him in honing his Tamil language skills.

Recently elected as the President of Kuwait Tamil Sangam (KTS), Ganapathy is keen to rejuvenate reading habit amongst the members, especially children. "With the advent of television and PCs, the habit of reading books has taken a severe beating" he rues. He has, therefore, offered a room in his house at salmiya for setting up a Tamil library for the members of the Sangam. "Books are the best friends, philosophers and guides that one can have in life" he believes.

Ganapathy plans on retirement, plans to settle down at Coimbatore- in TamilNadu, where he wants to spend the rest of his life peacefully engaging himself in a bit of farming and public service along with his wife.