Madhabi Puri Buch’s recent appointment as chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is quite refreshing. It is certainly heartening that Ms Buch happens to be the first woman to head the country’s capital and commodities markets regulator. But more importantly, her taking charge of the SEBI marks a much-needed break from the bureaucratic stranglehold over the markets regulator’s office. In the three decades of its existence, the SEBI has mostly been headed by an IAS officer.

Interestingly, the 56-year-old financial sector executive is the youngest chairperson to occupy the top post of the SEBI. Moreover, she is also the first person from the private sector to lead the markets watchdog.

Despite coming from a private sector background, the new SEBI chief knows the markets regulator inside out. She was a whole-time member of the SEBI for more than four-and-a-half years from April 2017 to October 2021. In her earlier stint at the SEBI, Ms Buch was in charge of the funds divisions and surveillance, and this experience is set to serve her well in her new responsibility.

An investment banker with impeccable academic pedigree, Ms Buch graduated in Mathematics from New Delhi’s St Stephen’s College. She went on to complete her MBA from the prestigious IIM Ahmedabad. She joined ICICI Bank as a project finance analyst in 1989. Ms Buch is one of the handful of executives who were groomed by veteran banker K V Kamath – the founder and former CEO of ICICI Bank. At ICICI, she rose through the ranks to become an executive director of the leading private sector bank. She then moved to ICICI Securities – the broking and investment banking arm of the ICICI Group – and served as its CEO.

The new SEBI chief had also headed business development division of private equity firm Greater Pacific Capital in Singapore and was also a consultant for New Development Bank in Shanghai. She had also set up Agora Advisory, a consulting and incubation firm, apart from being non-executive director in several organisations, including Max Healthcare, Zensar Technologies and Innoven Capital.

Known to be a tough taskmaster, industry veterans reveal that Ms Buch is progressive and not always sticking to the required regulatory processes. Many of her former colleagues at ICICI as well as the SEBI add that Ms Buch has always been known for adopting a consultative approach and taking along the entire team towards the set goals.

In her new role as the SEBI chief, Ms Buch will have to hit the ground running to restore the confidence of all the stakeholders in the markets regulator. The SEBI has unfortunately been in the limelight for all the wrong reasons recently, be it with regard to the scandal involving a “Himalayan Yogi” and former NSE chief Chitra Ramakrishna or NSE co-location scam. With so many years of rich and diverse experience, Ms Buch is most likely to restore the SEBI’s credibility and reputation.