Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited announced that the Board of Directors have appointed Mr. Eli Leenaars (full name: Mr. Cornelis Petrus Adrianus Joseph Leenaars) as an Additional Director and an Independent Director of the Bank for a period of four years, with effect from January 1, 2024, on fulfilment of such statutory /regulatory or other requirements, as may be necessary for effecting his appointment. Mr. Leenaars has over 35 years of extensive experience in the financial services sector, including institutional & investment banking, asset management, corporate & retail banking and life & general insurance. A respected expert on the future of digital banking and global industry trends in finance, investment, banking and leadership, Mr. Leenaars has experience in managing businesses through a wide range of matters including mergers & acquisitions, complex corporate restructurings, strategic initiatives, and challenging financial environments.

Mr. Leenaars enjoyed a 24-year career (since 1991) at ING Group N.V., a Dutch multinational banking and financial services company, and various of its subsidiaries and held numerous key management positions, including as Chairman of ING Poland (1997-1999), Chairman & CEO of ING Latin America (1999-2002) and Chairman & CEO of ING Central & Eastern Europe (2003-2004). Between 2004 and 2015, Mr. Leenaars was also member of ING's Executive Board with responsibility for ING's Global Retail and Private Banking operations and Group Technology and Operations. This also included from 2010 until 2015 serving as CEO of ING Direct N.V., the parent company of amongst others ING Direct in the United States of America, which pioneered the national direct deposit platform in the USA.

During 2010 - 2015, he also served as the CEO of ING Retail Banking Direct and International for ING, where he was responsible for Retail Banking and Private Banking worldwide. After ING, Mr. Leenaars served as the Group Managing Director and Vice-Chairman of the Global Wealth Management Division at UBS Group AG, a Swiss multinational investment bank and financial services company, from April 2015 to May 2021 based in Zurich. Since June 2021, Mr. Leenaars has served as Group Chief Operating Officer of Quintet Private Bank, a medium-sized Luxembourg- headquartered bank and wealth manager with operations in 6 European countries.

Since January 2019, Mr. Leenaars is a Board Member of Capital One Financial Corporation, a major American bank, headquartered in McLean, Virginia, USA, with operations primarily in the USA. Mr. Leenaars is also a member of the Executive Committee of the Trilateral Commission (Paris, Tokyo, and Washington, DC). Mr. Leenaars has completed LL.M. from the Catholic University Nijmegen, Netherlands and the European University Institute, Florence, Italy and attended Program for Management Development (PMD) at Harvard Business School, Boston, USA.