Asia Development Bank (ADB) has hired Lakshmi Venkatachalam as vice-president of private sector and co-financing operations.

The term for ADB’s fifth vice-president will last three years and comes as part of ADB’s long-term strategy to scale up private sector operations and co-financing partnerships.

Venkatachalam has over three decades’ experience in senior management positions; her most recent role saw her as director general of shipping for India’s government.

Other positions she has held include director in India’s ministry of steel; overseeing commerce and industry as the principal secretary to the government of Kamataka, urban development, programme implementation and economics and statistics.

She has also been posted as the commissioner of Bangalore Development Authority and managing director of the State Cooperative Marketing Federation in Kamataka.