Uday Kotak is an Indian billionaire banker, and the executive vice chairman and managing director of Kotak Mahindra Bank. In early 1980s, while India was still a closed economy and economic growth was muted, Kotak decided to start out on his own, refusing a lucrative job option from a multinational.
Forbes estimated his wealth to be $16 billion in 2020
Kotak was raised in an upper middle class Gujarati joint-family household with 60 people sharing a common kitchen under one roof. The family was originally into cotton trading. He called this “Capitalism at work and Socialism at home”. His talent in mathematics influenced his choice of career. He earned a bachelor’s degree from Sydenham College and completed a postgraduate degree in management studies in 1982 from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies. After completing his MBA, Kotak started Kotak Capital Management Finance Ltd . From a seed capital of less than US$80,000 borrowed from family and friends, he converted a bill-discounting start-up into a financial services conglomerate with assets of US$19 billion , and the second largest schedule commercial bank by market capitalization in India with over 1250 branches.

During 2014, Kotak almost doubled his wealth as shares of his Kotak Mahindra Bank hit an all-time high after he sealed a $2.4 billion deal in November 2014 for rival ING Vysya Bank, partly owned by Dutch financial services group ING.

In 2015, Kotak enters the general insurance business and is partnering telecom magnate Sunil Mittal’s Bharti Airtel to start a small payments bank.

Kotak has reduced his stake in the Kotak Mahindra Bank to 30% as of now, as he is required to bring it down to 20% as per RBI directions.

In August 2019 he was reported to be one of the most highly paid CEOs of any Indian bank with a monthly salary of ₹27 lakh .

He took over as President of the Confederation of Indian Industry for the year 2020-21.
In June 2014, he was named Ernst & Young World Entrepreneur Of The Year.