The ex-banker travels, sits on boards and works on causes close to his heart. He also keeps up with birdwatching
AS THE chairman of the Singapore Management University (SMU) board of trustees strides into the meeting room, one thing is noticeable: He is not wearing a tie.
For Piyush Gupta, it is a pivot from his days as CEO of DBS, when he wore one in the bank’s signature red with his sharp suits and carried a briefcase. These days, he shoulders a simple backpack.
But once settled in for the interview with The Business Times, Gupta is the same erudite speaker he has always been, discoursing on topics as diverse as meditation, conservation and education.
And despite having spent 45 years of his career in banking – 15 of them at DBS which he helped shape into a regional powerhouse – he dwells very little on the past.
Plan, plan and plan, because you are likely to live to 100
This is, after all, an interview with him about his new phase of life, after stepping down from the bank at the end of March 2025.
Leaving at the pinnacle of one’s success can be a terrifying prospect for many, but his departure was something that he proactively engineered.
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Years ago, when his early attempt at a startup failed, he fell into depression. “That lesson stayed with me. I said that when I retire or rewire, I’ll do it more sensibly and plan for it.”
The key point here, he said, is to think of life in terms of phases. Hindu tradition divides it into four stages, starting with life as a student, then a householder, followed by the retirement stage and finally, the renunciation stage.
Gupta said: “As you get into a quasi retired life, you give back and finally, you get into a life of solitude.” He pointed out that just 150 years ago, there was no such concept as an “adolescent” phase because people started working in their teens.
“As you get into a quasi retired life, you give back and finally, you get into a life of solitude.”
Former DBS chief Piyush Gupta
Another new phase has evolved, he said: “We are currently in the phase of creating a completely new life phase between the ages of 60 and 75, which is the silver-haired phase, where you have retired, but are still active with some form of work.”
The 66-year old Gupta does not blink an eye at the prospect of being a centenarian: “The 100-year lifespan is going to happen to all of us. In your 80s, mobility may be restricted, but I didn’t want to look back and say I did banking for 60 years and nothing else, so I planned to step down (from my post at DBS) at 65 – and have about 15 years to do what I want to do.”
With travel on his to-do list post-DBS, he quickly ticked off destinations such as the Himalayas, the Gobi Desert in Mongolia, and Zambia.
But travel aside, he consciously thought about “finding things to do which will serve my interest, but allow me to make an impact (on society)”.
Making an impact at Mandai and in education
Birdwatching is not a pastime often associated with the world of finance. His interest in the feathered kind cropped up when he interviewed for his first job decades ago with financial-services giant Citi; he admits he was stumped for a coherent answer when asked the reason for his fancy.
