Mrs Shikha Sharma is the Managing Director & CEO of Axis Bank, India’s third largest private sector bank in India. Mrs Sharma joined Axis Bank in 2009 and as a leader adept at managing change, she has focused on transforming Axis Bank into a Bank with strengths across a wide range of Corporate and Retail Banking products. At Axis Bank, she has focused on strengthening its retail lending franchise, enlarged its investment banking & advisory capabilities and developed a comprehensive portfolio of products in the payments space.
Mrs Sharma has more than three decades of experience in the financial sector having begun her career with ICICI Bank in 1980. In her 29-year tenure with the ICICI group, Mrs Sharma was instrumental in setting up ICICI Securities–a joint venture between ICICI and JP Morgan, besides setting up various group businesses for ICICI, including investment banking and retail finance. In her last assignment at ICICI, as Managing Director & CEO of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company, she built and contributed remarkably to make it the number 1 private sector Life Insurance Company in India.

Mrs Sharma chairs the confederation of Indian Industry (CII) National Committee on Banking since 2015. She was a member of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Technical Advisory Committee. Mrs. Sharma was also a part of RBI’s panel on Financial Inclusion, the Committee on Comprehensive Financial Services for Small Businesses and Low-Income Household. She has been the Co-Chairperson of Federation of Indian chambers of commerce and industry (FICCI) Banking & Financial Institutions Committee 2013-15 and she is a member of Visa’s Senior Client Council, APCEMEA (Asia –Pacific, Central Europe, Middle East & Africa).
Mrs. Sharma’s achievements in the financial sector have received wide recognition. She is a recipient of many business awards notably; CNBC TV18 Asia Business Leader of the Year award 2015-16’ ,‘Banker of the Year’ for 2014-15 by Business Standard, AIMA - JRD Tata Corporate Leadership Award for the Year 2014, India's Most Valuable CEOs by Businessworld-2013, India's Best Women CEO by Business Today- 2013 and many more.
Under Mrs. Sharma’s leadership, Axis Bank has received many awards notably, ‘ ‘Best Bank' award at the Outlook Money Awards 2015, “Banker of the Year” in the year 2015 by Business Standard, 'Bank of the Year in India' for the year 2014 by the Banker Magazine, Financial Times. The Bank was conferred the certificate of recognition for excellence in Corporate Governance by the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI), for the year 2015. The Bank was ranked as the 'Most Trusted Private Sector Bank' second year in a row - 'Most Trusted Brand Survey', conducted by Brand Equity, Economic Times. Axis Bank was ranked No 1 company to work for in the BFSI sector - 'The Best Companies to Work for' survey by Business Today in 2013. Axis Bank Foundation, the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) arm of the Bank was conferred upon as the ‘Outstanding Corporate Foundation’ at Forbes India, Philanthropy Awards, 2014.
As an acknowledgement of her efforts, Harvard Business School has published a case study on Managing Change at Axis Bank in 2013.