Samit Ghosh

Samit Ghosh is the founder of Ujjivan Financial Services Limited, and served as its managing director and chief executive officer until 31 January 2017, when he accepted an equivalent role with subsidiary Ujjivan Small Finance Bank. Prior to 2004, he held positions at Citibank, Standard Chartered, and HDFC Bank. He served as CEO of Ujjivan Financial Services till 2017. Ghosh is currently the non-executive Chairman of Ujjivan Financial Services.

Early life and education
Samit Ghosh was born in 1949 to Dr. Sailendra Kumar. Ghosh spent a large part of his early years in Dhanbad. His father was a doctor who served the Indian Army during World War II and set up a number of government hospitals in the poor coal mining areas near Dhanbad. He lost his father at age of 10. His mother was a professor in Sri Shikshyatan College. Ghosh completed his undergraduate in economics from St. Xavier's College in Kolkata and Master of Business Administration in finance from The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, United States.

Career
Samit Ghosh has a banking career spanning over 30 years in India, South Asia and the Middle East with a specialization in retail banking. He started his career with Citibank in 1975. From 1980 to 1985, he worked as the vice president for investment and corporate banking at Arab Bank in Bahrain. He returned to India in 1985 to rejoin Citibank and was part of the management team which launched retail banking in 1985. He served as the vice-president of Citibank from 1975-1980 and again from 1985-1993. From 1993 to 1996, he held the position of regional head of personal banking for South Asia and the Middle East at Standard Chartered Bank in Dubai. Prior to founding Ujjivan, he served as the CEO at Bank of Muscat.

In November 2005, he founded Ujjivan Financial Services in Bengaluru as a non-deposit taking, non-banking financial company (NBFC), primarily operating in the microfinance sector. The organization focuses on providing loans to women in urban and semi-urban areas. In 2013, Ujjivan Financial Services obtained registration with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) as a non-banking financial company - microfinance institution (NBFC-MFI). From February 1, 2017, he held the position of MD & CEO at Ujjivan Small Finance Bank until his retirement on November 30, 2019. Currently, Ghosh serves as a Non-Executive, Non-Independent Director at Ujjivan Small Finance Bank.

Other roles
He has served as the president of Microfinance Institutions Network (MFIN) and chairman of Association of Karnataka Microfinance Institutions (AKMI). Since April 2020, he has been serving as a CSI Partner at the Nudge Centre for Social Innovation, and as a Non-Executive Director at Parinaam Foundation since September 2020.

Awards and honors
In 2011, Ujjivan Financial Services was awarded as Microfinance Organization of the Year. Samit Ghosh was awarded as Social Impact Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 2015 by Forbes India. In 2019, he was awarded for Contribution to advancing financial inclusion at Inclusive Finance India Awards, 2019.