Veteran banker Victor Menezes passes away at 77

Veteran banker Victor Menezes, one of the earliest India-origin CXOs to lead storeyed multinationals, has died in the US at the age of 77, sources said on Monday. The Pune-born Menezes, an alumnus of IIT-Bombay and MIT, had a 32-year-long association with Citibank and retired as the global banking major's senior vice chairman.

Menezes died in Miami, sources said. However, the exact reasons for his death were not immediately known.

After getting a degree in electrical engineering from Indian Institute of Technology in 1970, Menezes went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the US for a business school degree.


He joined Citibank as a corporate banker soon after his b-school degree and worked across all continents during his stint with the financial services entity.

Menezes, the son of a civil servant Manuel Menezes and brother of former Diageo chief executive officer Ivan Menezes, was actively involved in various philanthropic initiatives.

In 2011, he donated USD 3 million to IIT-Bombay to help set up a convention centre in the premier tech school in Mumbai.

Indian business leader Kiran Mazumdar Shaw of Biocon mourned Menezes' death, calling him a wonderful and wise colleague at MIT Corporation who will be missed for his intellect.

Menezes is survived by wife Tara, a former beauty queen, and four children.