Chief executive officer of the HSBC (Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation) Bank in India, Kidwai is the first Indian woman to graduate from the revered Harvard Business School. She is also the first woman to head the operations of a foreign bank in India.

She began her career with PricewaterhouseCoopers in 1977, then moved on to ANZ Grindlays Bank in 1982 working as an investment banker. She then headed Grindlays' merchant banking division before moving on to head retail banking (Western region) at Morgan Stanley (India).

She made a name for herself at Morgan Stanley when she swung a joint venture with investment bank JM Financial, making the new entity one of the largest in the financial space. She was also instrumental in brokering a joint venture between the Birlas and the Tatas to create Idea, a telecom company.

Born in 1957, Kidwai did her BS from Delhi University in 1977 and MBA from Harvard in 1982.

Daughter of an insurance company executive, she is married to Rashid K Kidwai and is a mother of two children. She was awarded a Padma Shri, one of India's highest civilian awards, this year.

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Photograph: Rob Elliott/AFP/Getty Images

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