Board of Directors
Mr. Deepak Parekh
Mr. Deepak Parekh is the non-executive chairman of IDFC and Chairman of HDFC Ltd. Born in 1944 and a Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales (ICAEW), Mr. Parekh is at the financial helm of India Inc.
In 1978 Mr. Parekh joined India’s premier housing finance company HDFC Ltd. as Deputy General Manager and grew to become its Chairman in 1993. HDFC’s growth in stature and strength since its inception (1977), has been achieved by a steadfast focus on sound values such as integrity, transparency and professionalism, and is underpinned by a basic belief of trust by the Indian middleclass. Mr. Parekh, has not only preserved the ethos of the company, but has also strengthened it with time. His astute business acumen and farsightedness has not only made HDFC the leader in Mortgages, but has also transformed it into India’s leading Financial Services Conglomerate with presence in Banking, Asset Management, Life Insurance, General Insurance, Real Estate Venture Fund and more recently Education Loans.
In 1970, Mr. Parekh began his career with Ernst & Ernst Management Consultancy Services in New York. Thereafter he worked with Grindlays Bank and Chase Manhattan Bank for about three years each prior to joining HDFC in 1978.
Besides HDFC Group Companies, Mr. Parekh is on the board of several leading corporations across diverse sectors. He is the Non-Executive Chairman of GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals, Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC), Lafarge India and Siemens India Ltd. He is also on the boards of Castrol India Ltd., Hindustan Unilever Ltd., Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, Indian Hotels Company Ltd. among others and international boards of Singapore Telecommunications Ltd. (Singapore) and WNS Global Services Pvt. Ltd. (USA). Mr. Parekh is also nominated by the Civil Aviation Ministry to the Board of Airports Authority of India.
In addition to being known for his vociferous views seeking standardization and transparency in the real estate sector, Mr. Parekh is dubbed as the unofficial crisis consultant of the Government. Be it his recent role as Special Director on the Satyam Board to revive the company or the crucial role played by him sometime back during the UTI mess (late ‘90s) to recommend measures for sustaining investor confidence, Mr. Parekh has always been willing to share his ideas and experience to formulate reform policies across sectors. This at times, has also meant advising the Government to take hard decisions.
It is this quality of a master trouble-shooter that makes him a guiding force and an active member of various high-powered Economic Groups, Government-appointed Advisory Committees and Task Forces which include housing, financial services, capital markets and infrastructure sector reforms. Some of these include heading a committee to make recommendations for the proposed India infrastructure Debt Fund; heading a committee to suggest ways of making Indian cities slum-free (Rajiv Awas Yojna), membership to high level committee constituted to make recommendations on the issues regarding the deteriorating financial health and competitiveness of BSNL, chairmanship of the New Pension Scheme Expert Group, Chairmanship of the High Level Task Force on Affordable Housing, membership to Comptroller & Auditor General of India (C&AG)'s Audit Advisory Board etc.
Industry, Government and Media, impressed by Mr. Parekh’s performance and sobriety, have honored him with several awards, the Padma Bhushan (2006) being one of them.
Some of his other awards include a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Confederation of Real Estate Developers Associations of India (CREDAI) for his contribution to the Real Estate Industry – 2010, a special award from NDTV and CNN IBN for being part of the team that revived Satyam – 2009, the IMC Juran Quality Medal 2008, Outstanding Business Leader of the Year 2008 by CNBC, NDTV Business Leader of the Year Award – 2008, Lifetime Achievement Award - CNBC Awaaz Crisil Real Estate Awards 2008, the Priyadarshni Academy Award for his outstanding contribution to Banking and Financial Services in 2008 and Lifetime Achievement Award by The Economic Times in 2006.
Internationally, he has been pronounced as the first international recipient of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales’ Outstanding Achievement Award – 2010. In 2008, he was recognized amongst the ‘Stars of Asia’ by Business Week, listed as one of the top 25 most influential people in business and finance across Asia-Pacific by Asiamoney and was awarded the prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to the Financial Sector by Finance Asia magazine – Honkong. He was also chosen as the Best Non-Executive Director – 2006 by the Asian Centre for Corporate Governance in recognition of his leadership on the board of several large companies.
A man with a mission, Mr. Parekh’s philosophy on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is simple yet profound. He believes that if a company earns, it must also return to the society and that companies owe a responsibility not just to shareholders, but also to all its stakeholders. This has meant nurturing every social initiative undertaken by HDFC as an investment. HDFC, under his guidance, has supported several social initiatives in the areas of education, child welfare, medical research, welfare for the elderly and the handicapped among several others. And in recognition of these initiatives in the areas of philanthropy and social commitment Mr. Parekh was honored by the American India Foundation in 2007, while HDFC was honored with the Economic Times Corporate Citizen of the Year Award in 2004.
