CEO of Doha Bank
Birth
Raghavan Seetharaman was born on 4th April 1959 to Raghav and Durgambal Raghav Sharma in Mayiladuthurai in Nagapattinam District of Tamil Nadu.
Personal life
Raghavan Seetharaman married Sangeetha. They have two daughters Shweta Seetharaman and Shruti Seetharaman.
Education
Raghavan was the Gold medalist in B.Com from the University of Madras. He completed his CA from the Institute of Chartered Accountants in India. He got the certificate in IT systems and Corporate Management.
Doctorates
He has got more than two doctorates from various Universities in the world. In 2012, he got the Doctor of Civil Laws of Honoris Causa from the European University. Then in 2013, he got the Ph.D in Global Governance from the European University. In 2015, he received the Ph.D in Green Banking and Sustainability from the Sri Sri University. He is the recipient of the Doctor of Philosophy (Honorary) from the Arts, Science and Technology in the Lebanon.
Life Career
Raghavan began his career in PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), which is among the largest professional services networks. He became the Deputy CEO for the Doha bank in 2002. In September 2007, he became the CEO. After the extension of the bank to various countries like UAE, Singapore, India, China and others from Qatar.
He had served in three Banks in the Middle East at the top Management level. He had made business initiatives like opening of the full-fledged cross branch operations in places such as Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and Dubai. Then he made the opening of representative offices in countries like Singapore, Japan, Canada, Hong Kong Frankfurt, United Kingdom, Sharjah, China, South Korea and Turkey.
While he had been the CEO of the Doha bank, the establishment of the Doha Bank Assurance Company was made. It was the first Eastern Bank to start the 100% owned insurance company. Then the signing of the bond between the UNESCO and the Doha Bank was made during his tenure, to work for greening the environment to execute the activities like Tree Planting, ECO Schools, Beach Clean-up, Recycling and other Waste management programs along with the Ministry of Environment.
He brought in the new services and products, innovative business models, consumer based technology solutions and other plans for his Bank in the State of Qatar. Raghavan has gone to countries like Turkey, Japan, India, Singapore, USA and China to conduct seminars. He had been the proponent of economic unity and the cross border funding opportunities between the Gulf Cooperation Council and other parts of the world.
Honor
On 27th may 2015, Raghavan Seetharaman got the Lifetime Achievement Award at Banker Middle East Awards in Dubai. In 2007, he got the Certificate from the United States Department of Commerce. Later at the NRI Institute, he got the Life Time Achievement Award for excellent achievements in the Banking sector from the External Affairs Minister of State in 2009.
In 2012, he got the “Outstanding Contribution to the Industry” award during the Banker Middle East Industry Awards 2010 that held in Dubai. For his work in a knowledgeable and innovative manner, he became the World Leader Business person for 2012. In 2013, he received the Mahatma Gandhi Pravasi Samman from the NRI Convention that held in House of Lords in London.
On 13th December 2014, he won the “ABLF Business Economist Award” at the ABLF (Asia Business Leadership Forum) Leadership weekend. In June 2019, he won the Best CEO of the Century for Peace and Humanity Award from the World Humanitarian Drive (WHD). Later he got the Business Leader of the Year Award from the BRICS International Forum for his work to the environment.
For making the trade relationship between the Sri Lanka and Qatar, Raghavan Seetharaman got the Award of Excellence from the Sri Lankan Ambassador Mr.A.S.P.Liyanage. Later, he won the India’s highest honor for Overseas Indians, the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award from then President of India, Pranab Mukherjee.
Awards
In 2006, Raghavan won the Arab Asian Banker Excellence Award from the Arab Asian Forum in Singapore. He became the awardees of the Gullands Excellence Awards for excellence in 2008. Then, by the Middle East Awards Institute, he was chosen as the Best CEO in Middle East Banking Industry 2008.
He became the awardees of The Phenomenal banker Achievers Excellence Award in 2009. For the second time, he won the CEO of the Year 2011 at the EMEA Awards in Middle East. Later in 2012, he won the CA Global Achiever Award at the Institute of Chartered Accountants on India (ICAI) Awards 2012 in Mumbai.
In 2013, he won the Global Indian Award from the Rotary Club of Madras Metro at the KRIA launch . In the same year, he won the 4th Rajiv Gandhi Excellence Award for his excellent services. At the 23rd World Congress Leadership and Quality of Governance and Presentation of Golden Peacock Awards function, he won the Leadership and Fellow Award. Later at the INDIA SME BUSINESS CONCLAVE, Raghavan Seetharaman got the Best Banker Award for Supporting SMEs in 2013. In 2014, he won the “Banking Innovator” at the Indian Innovator Awards, Entrepreneur of the Year Award program. .
In the same year, he won the Gold Stevie Award for Executive of the Year and Man of the Year award. He was chosen as the Business Man of the Year Award for the year 2015. In the same year on 13th March, he won the NRI Foundation Excellence award from the Government of India. In 2016, he got the Green Economy Visionary Award at the Union of Arab Banks (UAB) International Banking Summit. He won the “Energy and Environment Foundation 2017 Global Excellence Award in Renewable Energy” in 2017.
He was chosen for the CEO of the Year Award during the Middle East Banking Awards 2017 Ceremony. In the same year, at the Excellence in Quality and management Conference, he got the “Best manager of Year for Excellence in Quality” in Banking in Switzerland. In 2018, at the New Age Banking Summit 2018, he won the New Age Banker of the Year Award. He won the Professional Excellence Award from the Institute of Directors (IOD) in September 2019. In the same year, he won the 3G Leadership Award for Corporate Sector 2019.