Goldman Hires New Chairman of India

On the heels of BofA naming India's richest man to its board of directors, and underscoring Wall Street's shifting focus on India and China, Goldman Sachs has named named Sonjoy Chatterjee to the newly-created post of India chairman.

Chatterjee, who's been with Goldman for less than a year, previously worked for ICICI Bank (India's second-largest), where he "served as an executive director with responsibility for corporate and investment banking, project finance, government banking and international banking businesses." In his new post, Chatterjee will oversee an already formidable Indian operation that includes thousands of investment banking, investment management and back-office professionals.

In 2010, Goldman ranked No. 1 in Asia-Pacific IPOs, and No. 6 in dollar, euro and yen bond offerings in the region. To add to its investment management operations, Goldman recently purchased the Indian-based Benchmark Asset Management Co., which should help the bank further take advantage of a country where mutual funds "have more than tripled to 6.8 trillion rupees ($150 billion)" in the past five years.

Other than spending 16 years at ICICI, the 42-year-old Chatterjee holds a degree in chemical engineering, an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, and, in his free time, is said to enjoy rocking out while playing the drums (which I think is pretty obvious from the wild photo of Sonjoy above).

(Bloomberg: Goldman Says Chatterjee to Head India Unit; Entwistle Moves to Singapore)

(Related: BofA Adds Indian Billionaire to Board)