Aditya Puri hands over charge, Jagdishan takes over as HDFC Bank MD & CEO

At 5:30 pm on Monday, Aditya Puri stepped out of HDFC Bank's corporate headquarters after handing over charge to Sashidhar Jagdishan as the new chief executive and managing director of the largest private sector lender.

Over 25 years ago, at a nondescript office across the road in Lower Parel's Kamala Mills compound, Puri had started work as the bank's first head, and built the lender which now employs close to 1.20 lakh people.

Jagdishan had also come to the office for the hand-over ceremony. Both Jagdishan and Puri addressed their colleagues virtually during the day, officials said.

In his speech, Puri reminisced about the journey of building the bank which focused on the centrality of the employees, while Jagdishan affirmed to carry his legacy forward and thanked his boss, they said.

Farewell celebrations have been on for the last 25 days at the bank, which reached a crescendo on Saturday with a specially-produced 90-minute virtual event.

The event, which was watched by over a lakh employees, had Puri, senior leadership, current employees, and former officials of the bank speaking, they said.

There was entertainment as well, with Shankar Mahadevan singing Puri's favourite old Bollywood numbers, recital of a poem penned in Puri's honour, and also an anthem dedicated to him being sung, they said.

Bank House, the corporate headquarters, was lit up over the weekend, with one facade sporting a huge picture of Puri with a message thanking him for his service.

Earlier in the day, in an unusual move, rival ICICI Bank publicly thanked Puri for being an inspiration and for his contributions to Indian banking.

Late in the evening on Monday, the bank informed the exchanges about the completion of Puri's tenure and handover of reins to Jagdishan, as per the mandatory disclosure requirements.

A rare aspect for any business leader which had become a daily practice was not missed even on Puri's last day at work -- leaving office at 5.30 pm.