The Hindu Business Line : Former Bank of Madura Chairman passes away

Mr K.M. Thiagarajan, Chairman, Micro credit Foundation of India, and former Chairman, Bank of Madura, passed away today. He was 62. Mr Thiagarajan is survived by his wife, Deborah Thiagarajan.

Mr Thiagarajan was born into the illustrious Karumuttu Thiagaraja Chettiar family in Madurai. He did his MBA and PhD at the University of Pittsburgh, US.

He started his career as Assistant Professor at the Graduate School of Management at the University of Rochester. Returning to India, he was a management trainer and consultant to various companies including IBM India and Indian Oil Corporation. After a stint in the family business of textiles, Mr Thiagarajan took charge of Bank of Madura in the early 1990s.

Mr Thiagarajan has conducted executive training programmes in the US, Norway, Iran, Japan and India. His work has been published in journals such as The Journal of Applied Psychology and Management International.

The words `Chairman, Bank of Madura' got suffixed to his name even long after he sold off his stake in the bank to ICICI Bank in 2001.

Selling Bank of Madura must have been painful to him, but he really thought that the move was good for the bank. He told Business Line then that Bank of Madura could have remained within his control, but capital adequacy requirements would have come in the way of the bank's growth.

Mr Thiagarajan also earned recognition as a man who spearheaded the micro credit movement in India. In August 2003, he set up the Micro credit Foundation of India, well before micro-financing began to take root and germinate in India.