He comes from a distinguished family that is traditionally rich, yet simple and grounded. Anand Selvakesari, who was promoted last week as Chief Operating Officer at Citigroup, will also remain head of personal banking and wealth management.

Citibank picked the young lad from Madurai, Tamil Nadu, 32 years ago and he has not looked back since. From Madurai’s well-known Vikaasa School, Selvakesari moved to Coimbatore Institute of Technology for his engineering degree and Thiagarajar School of Management, Madurai, for an MBA.

Hard-working and amiable, he quickly rose up the ranks in Citibank. “He can get along with just anybody,” says a schoolmate. Another remarked that Citi sees him as a troubleshooter who can get things done. Selvakesari built up Citi’s consumer banking business in Taiwan and China, alongside an excellent card franchise.

He moved back to India in 2011 when the bank’s once high-flying credit card business came under attack from new-age banks. He introduced strategic products such as the Citibank-Jet Privilege card, which soon morphed into the successful Citi Premier Miles card. It is ironic that Selvakesari becomes COO at a time when Citi is exiting the consumer banking and credit card business in India that he helped build.

Hailing from the Nattukottai Nagarathar clan, commonly known as Chettiars, money and banking runs in his blood. Incidentally, his grandfather was a journalist running a Tamil newspaper, Veerakesari, in Colombo in the 1940s.

Selvakesari’s close friend from college describes him as humble and down to earth. He remembers how Selvakesari remained focused and immune to diversions during his college days. A keen sports lover who could also draw well, Selvakesari represented his school and, later, college in basketball. God-fearing, he is deeply into philanthropy and volunteers at the Mata Amritanandamayi Math in Kerala every year. And he never fails to visit his parents in Madurai at least twice a year, no matter which part of the world he’s posted in.

‘Selvam’ in Tamil means wealth. There’s no doubt that Selvakesari is indeed Citi’s Selva(m)!