Mr. Ashish Kumar Chauhan is the MD and CEO of Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). At BSE, his mission involves reviving the BSE into prominence. His efforts have been able to create a derivatives market at BSE from scratch to more than 20% market share within a short span of one year. Trading volume in BSE exceeded Rs. 1.77 lakh crore in a single day under his leadership.

He also serves on the Board of Directors of Indian Clearing Corporations Limited (ICCL), Central Depository Services Limited (CDSL), Bank of India Shareholding Limited (BOISL), BSE Training Institute Limited (BTI), BFSI sector Skill Council (A section 25 company) and Marketplace Technologies Private Limited, and on the Board of Governors of Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Jabalpur.

Mr. Chauhan is one of the founders of National Stock Exchange, (NSE) which is considered as the largest exchange in the world by number of trades. His contribution to the field include, Implementation of first two way commercial satellite network in India in 1994 using TDM/TDMA technology and of first screen based trading system in India in 1994 at NSE; Introduction of internet based securities trading in India; Creation of automated examination system for financial markets – NSE’s certification in financial markets with more than 1 million students certified by now; and Creation of modern organized financial derivatives market for India at NSE. He has introduced mobile securities trading in India at BSE 2010 and has furthermore, initiated the largest and the fastest trading system in India.

Mr. Chauhan holds a B.Tech. in Mechanical Engineering from IIT Bombay (1989) and PGDM from IIM Calcutta (1991). During his college days, he was an active participant in the extra-curricular activities at IIT Bombay such as Mood Indigo, Sportsfest, Tarang and Spic Macay, to mention some. “Interacting with some of the best minds (students and faculty) in the world, while staying at IITB campus for four years, has made me humble and at the same time, encouraged me to think positively. The training to solve problems and think out of box, even under tough conditions, is the most important gift given to me, by the Institute. I also realized that more than brilliance, it is the sincerity and hard work that finally matters,” added Mr. Chauhan, who made his best friends at IIT Bombay.

Mr. Chauhan started his career with Industrial Development Bank of India as a Project Finance Officer (1991-93). During 1993-2000, he worked as a five-member team to set up and operate National Stock Exchange (NSE). Due to his work in setting up modern exchange traded financial derivatives in Indian markets at NSE from 1995 onwards, he is known as the ‘father of derivatives’ in Indian finance. He was instrumental in creating NSE-50 (Nifty), the most traded index in derivatives in India, NSE’s certification in Financial Markets (NCFM), IPO through screen and several other innovations in the Indian markets. In addition, he was instrumental in setting up initial Information Technology infrastructure including the first commercial satellite telecom network in India for NSE. He was also involved in conceptualization of National Securities Clearing Corporation (NSCCL) and initial set up of National Securities Depository Limited (NSDL) in a minor way.

During his tenure with Reliance Group, from 2000-2009, Mr. Chauhan worked as the Group Chief Information Officer (CIO). He was moreover, involved in setting up Information Technology for Reliance Communications, Reliance Retail, Reliance Oil and Gas, Reliance Life Sciences and several other businesses within Reliance group. During this period, he was ranked amongst the top 50 CIOs in the world by several magazines and institutions. He also acted as a CEO and Managing Director of Reliance Infosolutions Limited, which led to the Group winning several International and Indian awards for the most effective IT utilization. From July 2005 to August 2008, Mr. Chauhan handled additional responsibilities as the Head, Corporate Communications for Reliance Group. Interestingly, he has also served as the CEO of ‘Mumbai Indians’ cricket team.

Mr. Chauhan has won several International and Indian awards in areas including business transformation and providing the best IT solutions for different industries he has worked for, including stock markets, petrochemicals, telecommunications etc. Some of such awards are – British Parliament, British House of Commons, Indo-British Business Forum, UK, London, Transformational Business Leadership for Bombay Stock Exchange, October 2013; Zee Business – Transformational Business Leadership for Bombay Stock Exchange, July 2013; Most influential 63 Gujaratis in the world, Chitralekha (Widest circulation having Gujarati Magazine in Indian and abroad), 2012; Top 50 CIOs (world), Information Week, US, 2009; The NASSCOM – CNBC TV 18 IT User Award, Manufacturing Sector, November 2008; Indian Most Admired Knowledge Enterprise (MAKE) Award, KNOW Network, November 2008; Bronze Winner, Excellence in Information Integrity (EII) Award, for profit category, Information Integrity Coalition (IIC), US, October, 2008; CIO Excellence Award, Chemical Week, Florida, US, 2007; and CIO-100 award (Ranking of 100 CIOs in the world) CIO Magazine, California, US, 2005, besides many many more.

Not many people are aware that Mr. Chauhan serves on the Advisory Board of ‘Lend-A-Hand India’, an NGO working in the field of providing vocational training, financial assistance and continual support to rural youth across India, as well. He enjoys reading, playing cricket and listening to music in his leisure time.