INTHEBLACK August 2024 - Flipbook - Page 14
MEMBER PROFILE
Rajeev Adrian FCPA became
CEO and managing director
of ABC International Bank in
London in July 2021.
He has a bachelor of commerce
from the University of Western
Australia and an MBA
from the Cranfield School
of Management in the UK.
Adrian has made tactical career
moves throughout his career,
which he says enabled him to
tackle his current role.
STRATEGIST
TACTICAL MOVES
Rajeev Adrian FCPA has taken a winding path to attain his
current role as CEO of an international bank, but that,
he says, is how he reached the top.
Words Katie Langmore
Photography David Woolfall
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14 INTHEBLACK August 2024
The strategic long game has never
been far from Rajeev Adrian FCPA’s mind.
When he was a child, Adrian’s family
moved from Sri Lanka to India and then
the US, firmly setting his career on the
path of diversity.
To use diversification as a career strategy
in itself, Adrian believes people need to seek
opportunities and make choices that teach
them, expand their skill set and differentiate
them from others.
“I made very calculated decisions to
give myself a broad, rounded experience,”
he explains.
Adrian moved to Australia in 1990 to
earn his undergraduate degree. Following
this, to gain an understanding of how
organisations function, Adrian worked
first as an auditor with the Office of the
Auditor General in Western Australia and
then as an investigator at the Australian
Securities and Investments Commission.
Then, in 1995, he moved to the UK
to study. “I consciously chose the UK for
my MBA to make myself more international,
because I had already studied in Australia
and the US,” he says.
After completing his MBA studies,
Adrian remained in the UK and worked
in the banking sector. He made sideways
moves to cover a range of different
disciplines, including finance, business
development, strategy and operations –
for a different company each time.
“If I had moved in a linear path, I would
be a CFO at best, but, even then, I feel
companies are looking for strategic CFOs.
If I had not made those moves, I do not
believe I would be a CEO today.
“Playing the long game takes us out
of our comfort zone and requires us
to forgo short-term gain,” he says.
“Many of my colleagues were progressing
up the career ladder faster than I was,
