Google Pay has brought former Axis Bank CEO Shikha Sharma as an advisor on board

• The former banker Sharma will be a mentor at Google’s digital payment initiative – Google Pay.
• Sharma is now an independent director at four companies-- Tech Mahindra, Dr Reddy’s Labs, Tata Global Beverages (which operates Starbucks chain in India) and Ambuja Cement.
• In 2018, the RBI had asked the country’s third largest private bank Axis Bank to ‘reconsider’ extending their then CEO Shikha Sharma’s tenure.

Former Axis Bank CEO Shikha Sharma has been appointed as an advisor to Google Pay.


Since she left Axis Bank in December 2018, Sharma has been an independent director at four companies⁠— Tech Mahindra, Dr Reddy’s Labs, Tata Global Beverages (which operates Starbucks chain in India) and Ambuja Cement.

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Private Equity firm KKR appointed her as an adviser for their alternate investments. This is very good progress for someone who claims to have a ‘permanent inability to sell herself’. This trait kept her away from landing a job on the very first day of recruitment at IIM Ahmedabad.

Sharma’s stint at Axis Bank did not end on a high note. By the time she was reportedly forced by the regulator Reserve Bank of India to step down, Axis Bank was struggling under a mountain of bad loans ⁠— much of which was brushed under the carpet for sometime ⁠— faced a penalty of ₹30 million for allegedly fudging accounts, and some of the Axis Bank staff was found guilty of passing on unaccounted money into the system right after demonetisation.

See Also:
RBI may have wanted her out of Axis Bank but Starbucks partner Tata Global Beverages is among four companies which brought Shikha Sharma on-board
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