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.

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.