Rajesh has 23 years experience in the financial services sector, of which he has spent 13 years in the Indian Life Insurance industry. Visualizing the scope and growth, he became a part of this sunrise industry in 1999, much before it was opened to the private players.

Over these years, he has contributed significantly through his strategic vision to the development of the private life insurance industry in areas like regulatory & policy formulation, market practices, product development, policyholders’ protection and distribution models. He is widely recognized for the pivotal role he played towards three different life insurance ventures in the country. In the first, he played a critical role as a key project team member that led to the successful formation of the JV. With the second life insurance company, a start-up, he was one amongst the first five employees instrumental in launching and growing its Indian operations. Finally, in his third stint he was entrusted with the task of transforming another life insurance Company – MetLife, of which he is the Managing Director & Country Manager since July 2006.

Rajesh joined MetLife India in 2006 and has transformed the organization since then. With exceptional skills in Business Strategy & Planning, he laid the foundation for MetLife’s success in the Indian market. Under his able leadership, MetLife considerably improved its market share, while improving Opex ratios considerably over the last six financial years and the Company has turned profitable for FY 2011.

In his previous role as the Director - Bancassurance & Business Partnerships at Aviva, Rajesh was responsible for Sales, Planning and Implementation of the Bancassurance & Business Partnerships Strategy. This included path-breaking work done on developing the Bancassurance channel into a sustainable business model for the life insurance industry, a first in the country. An expert in forging successful bancassurance relationships, Rajesh has led and executed some very successful tie-ups, while in Aviva, with ABN Amro Bank, Canara Bank & PSB, amongst others. Prior to Aviva, he worked with Old Mutual Plc. and was a part of the Life Insurance JV start-up team.

Educational Qualifications

Rajesh has a Masters degree in Management Studies specializing in marketing from Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, University of Mumbai in 1989.