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 100This 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. Read more