Born in 1961 in a Sikh family in Khadki, near Pune to Jaswant and Harbhajan Banga, Ajaypal had grown up across India. The reason being their father, Harbhajan, decorated Army personnel who retired as Lt General (PVSM, VSM), was often posted to different places. The Banga kids, Manvinder, Ajayapal and Deepa, thus, went to schools in Secunderabad, Jalandhar, Delhi, Hyderabad and Shimla, learning languages and cultures.
Ajaypal graduated with a bachelor’s degree from St Stephen’s College, University of Delhi and took an MBA degree from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) – both institutes prestigious for their own reasons!
During his MBA, he did his training at Nestle India in 1981. “That was a sort of the start of my career,” shares Ajay with pride. In the next 13 years, he did a variety of assignments spanning sales, marketing and general management. He later joined PepsiCo’s restaurants division, where he was instrumental in the launch of Pizza Hut and KFC in India.
In 1996, he joined Citigroup Inc, an investment banking company, as the head of marketing in India for the consumer business where he served in a variety of positions including the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the International Global Consumer Group. He was later elected as the president of retail banking in North America and division executive for the consumer bank in Central and Eastern Europe, Africa, the Middle East and India.
He was promoted to head CitiFinancial and the US consumer assets division in 2000.
Within a few years, he took over the retail bank in North America as the head of the Citi Group’s international consumer banking and finance businesses. In 2008, he moved to Hong Kong to oversee all of the bank’s businesses in Asia, including credit cards and consumer banking along with institutional banking and wealth management.
By now, he was ready for his new venture – the turning point of his career, MasterCard, where he joined in 2009. Those were the days of extreme transformation – computers had already changed the world. Money too was evolving; plastic money was the new money and he had just the right approach to it.
New Market Approach
Working with one of his best clients, he looked out for ways to get more use of plastic money. Redesigning debit cards with newer features, he created a whole new market approach with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
His leadership brought the young, trendy and inventive group of people in Mastercard labs the scope to explore and innovate, which they together tried to embed them to their clients, ultimately chasing down the world leader, Visa.
“How you lead a team actually makes a huge difference. A leader encourages the team to talk with him like a colleague and works together with the team. I encourage my colleagues to say things to me that they would never have had a chance to say to most bosses. That is because we together spend too many hours in office to be stressed out with each other.”
On January 1, 2022, Ajaypal assumed responsibilities as the Vice Chairman at General Atlantic, a leading global growth equity firm. His role involves advising on strategic matters for the firm, its investment teams and its portfolio of more than 165 growth companies around the world.
What has proved to be his high point is his management style. Ajay says, “I’m very passionate but I take time to work on my passion. I study something and I try to understand both sides of the debate because if you’ve been a banker and worked around the world long enough, you kind of have to understand both the sides. But you have to have a point of view, and so I believe in having a point of view on an issue and not ducking the issue.”
Accolades Galore
The Economic Times named him the fourth Most Powerful Indian while Fortune named him among the top 50 business leaders across the world. What distinguished him is the fact that among CEOs, he remains purely an India-educated brain.
He also serves on the boards of several other enterprises and social organizations, as a member of the Financial Services Roundtable, the Council on Foreign Relations, and The Economic Club of New York besides serving as a fellow of the Foreign Policy Association to name a few. As a member of the Business Roundtable, he chairs the Information and Technology Initiative.
He is the Chairman of the US-India Business Council (USIBC) representing more than 300 of the largest international companies investing in India, and the Chairman of the International Chamber of Commerce. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the Dow Chemical Company, Council on Foreign Relations and International Business Council of the World Economic Forum.
He was awarded Padma Shri, one of the highest civilian awards in India, in 2016 by the President of India Pranab Mukherjee.
A Cultured Leadership
Even as he constantly moved up the ladder of success, Ajaypal stood firmly with his culture, his tradition and his Indianness. He loves to spend time pursuing his passion – his work – and still finds time enough to fulfill all his social and personal responsibilities.
Ajaypal insists that one must balance professional and personal life. “No matter how busy you are, always give time and effort to the people who care for you, and that’s always family and a few friends.” He believes, “People will value you for your transparency, your decency and your sense of purpose.”
Partner in Arms
Ajaypal is married to Ritu, who has been extremely influential in laying foundations of the Zoomdojo, a college-to-career initiative. A graduate of the University of Delhi and an alumna of the IIM-Ahmedabad, she started her career with Ajaypal in product management, marketing and sales. She loves to contribute her time to various NGOs she is associated with. The couple is blessed with two daughters, Aditi, who is currently working with Apple, and Jojo, who is performing well at university.
A global leader in banking management, he still likes to be on his toes. “I know avoiding procrastination is tough but winning over smaller difficulties is the way to success. Know that your success is tied to the success of others. Share good news as early as possible, find quick solutions, be patient to listen to everybody and yet have a sense of urgency to take a decision and execute it. Be courageous, calculate and take risks. There is always something to learn from everyone. Be competitively paranoid and don’t be afraid of introspection.”
