UTI Asset Management Co Ltd, in which American asset management group T. Rowe Price holds a 26 per cent stake, has announced the appointment of Leo Puri as its new managing director.

UTI, India's sixth biggest asset manager by size, had been operating without a managing director for more than two years. The company's previous chairman & managing director U. K. Sinha departed in February 2011 to join capital market regulator Securities & Exchange Board of India (Sebi) as chairman.

Mr. Puri has long been tipped to be the next chief of UTI. But, disagreements among stakeholders prevented the appointment. As per some previous media reports, T. Rowe had been opposing Mr. Puri's appointment due to his lack of experience in asset management.

He previously worked as a director & senior adviser at consultancy McKinsey and Co. and as a managing director at private equity firm Warburg Pincus.

Fifty-two-year-old Mr. Puri is a holder of dual Master's degree from Oxford University and Cambridge University, and holds more than three decades of professional experience.

He has been based in India since 1994.