Firing on all cylinders — that's what the year has been for Kaku Nakhate, the longest serving CEO of any foreign bank in India. In a pandemic-ravaged year, she led from the front. "We had to see that clients don't suffer. This whole pandemic really made banks globally work a lot more closely together and that, I think, is the biggest victory," says the 54-year-old. "Last year, our fixed income did well. On the forex side, too, we were able to offer interesting swaps and products," says Nakhate. After missing out on the Walmart-Flipkart deal, Nakhate had upped the ante on the investment banking side, and that's showing in the raft of deals led by the bank, including Facebook and Google's investment in Jio. The bank also waded into the consumer tech food business by helping cloud kitchen player Rebel Foods raise funds. Besides advising the Medlife-Pharmeasy merger, it was the lead banker for India's maiden Unicorn IPO of Zomato, and now has the mandate for LIC's mega offering, besides Nykaa and Delhivery. But Nakhate is most excited about renewables: "We have done 80% of the large deals in the country and going ahead this will be a focus area for us." — V. Keshavdev