2nd India Alternative and Quantitative Investing Summit

Investments and Risk Management professional with 18+ years of buy-side experience in working for firms in India & Singapore; Chartered Financial Analyst - CFA Institute, USA; MBA in Finance & Information Systems, Certified Information Systems Auditor - ISACA, USA and Graduate Engineer in Computer Sciences;Specialize in Financial and Operational Risk Management; Investment & Wealth Management; Enterprise technology solutions for Investment Management; Financial Portfolio Performance and Risk Analysis; Alternative Investments; Corporate Credit Analysis; Governance Framework for Investment Management; Financial Product Structuring; RFP & Due Diligence

Chetan is the head of quantitative investments and machine learning methodologies at Bandhan Asset management. He has been building quantitative trading and portfolio management models for global markets across asset classes for a number of years mostly for developed markets. He has managed portfolios that are both long only and long-short across asset classes. He also co-managed a global macro hedge fund and traded most developed markets in all asset classes using listed and OTC instruments. He currently manages a machine learning driven portfolio in the Indian equity market. Chetan holds a masters in finance, PhD in computer science focused on autonomous multi-agent systems as applied to financial markets. He has interest in anything related to statistics, probability, information theory, machine learning, technology, open source software and quantitative finance.

Dr. Joshy Jacob is an accomplished academic in the Finance and Accounting department at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA). He holds significant expertise in asset pricing and financial markets. His research focuses on areas such as capital markets, corporate governance, and risk management. Jacob is particularly noted for his work on the equity markets. He has contributed to numerous high-quality academic journals and regularly engages in financial sector consultancy projects. He teaches various courses, including financial modeling, corporate finance, and investment management.

Jai Kishan Challa CEO & Founder, Curated Living Solutions Mr. Jai Kishan Challa is the visionary founder and CEO of Curated Living Solutions, a co-living company catering to millennials with high-quality housing and accommodation options. As a first-generation entrepreneur, he drives the company’s fundraising, financial management, marketing, and service delivery efforts. Mr. Challa also leads board governance, community engagement, and public relations. With an Executive Management Program from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia, Mr. Challa brings extensive experience and strategic foresight to the business. His journey to founding Curated Living Solutions in 2019 (to be confirmed) was built on over 20 months of in-depth research. The company focuses on smart room design, service innovation, quality dining, and customer analytics. Under his leadership, Curated Living Solutions has successfully expanded across the length and breadth of the country, establishing a presence in 12 cities nationwide, covering both Tier 1 and Tier 2 locations. Guided by Mr. Challa’s entrepreneurial spirit, the company has achieved nearly 98% occupancy rates over the years. He envisions Curated Living Solutions as the top housing choice for millennials nationwide, committed to providing best-in-class living experiences. In pursuit of this vision, Mr. Challa integrates various business components, from real estate and interior design to food and service. Dedicated to fostering a collaborative work culture, he is building an employee-first organization.

Senior Principal, Strategic Initiatives and Policy Advisory Mukundan has over two decades of experience across managing infrastructure and private equity Funds and in debt investments in infrastructure projects. He joined NIIF in April 2021 and is part of the Strategic Initiatives and Policy Advisory team. At NIIF, he is responsible for leading State level strategic initiatives for building investment pipeline for NIIF Funds and policy advisory in infrastructure financing. Prior to joining NIIF, he was at TVS Capital as Executive Director where he was handling investments in a mid-market focused AIF. Prior to TVS Capital, Mukundan was with UTI Mutual Fund Group for over 11 years and was last CEO of UTI Capital, the alternate assets platform of the UTI Mutual Fund Group where he was responsible for fund raising, investment management and investor relations. UTI managed infrastructure private equity and social impact funds. He has also been with Tamil Nadu Infrastructure Fund Management Corporation, where he was Executive Director- Investments. Mukundan was also with SIDBI and SIDBI Ventures for over 13 years, where he managed Debt Investments in Infrastructure Projects and in venture capital investing in early-stage tech companies. Mukundan is an Electrical Engineer and has completed his post-graduation (Master of Financial Management) from Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai.

Manish Dhawan is the founder partner of Mystic Wealth. A SEBI Registered RA. He has an industry experience of 13 years and currently heads the Momentum and Options desk. Manish is also very well known in India as a co-host of popular podcast series, “Stoic Talks”, one of the very first investing and trading podcasts from India profiling both National and International trading and investing personalities. He is known for his sharp command of options, Factor investing and Risk and his blog (https://mysticwealth.medium.com/) contain a wealth of wisdom covering these topics.

Sathanbabu is a seasoned investment professional with deal life cycle experience across multiple real estate deals and an experienced credit analyst. He is Principal - Tamil Nadu Shelter Fund at Tamil Nadu Infrastructure Fund Management Corporation Limited (TNIFMC). TN Shelter Fund, is a category-I Social impact fund which invests in affordable housing projects with focus on rental housing and industrial housing. Prior to joining TNIFMC, he worked in Piramal Capital managing portfolio of real estate investments totaling to more than $125 million (Debt/Equity). Before Piramal, at ICRA Limited (a Moody’s Investor Services Company) he was leading large corporate ratings for steel and mining sector in South India and has rated over 100 entities across industries in South India. His credit rating experience covers loans availed / debt issued by a range of entities like partnerships, listed entities, and corporations, among others. Sathanbabu holds a PGDM from IIM Kozhikode and was awarded the Gold Medal for Academic Excellence (Institute Rank 1). He did his Electrical and Electronics Engineering from College of Engineering, Guindy. He is also a CFA Charterholder and volunteers with CFA Society, India.

Sreemant Dudhoria is a CFA CharterHolder with 15 years of experience in equity research and information technology (banking and finance domain). He is the promoter of Sree Capital, a platform to share fundamental research on listed Indian companies. His most recent assignment was with Unifi Capital in their equity research team. He is also a SEBI registered Research Analyst.

Ravi Saraogi is the co-founder of Samasthiti Advisors and a SEBI Registered Investment Adviser. He previously headed the fund raising and product design verticals at Northern Arc Investments (formerly known as IFMR Investments). Prior to Northern Arc, he worked at the institutional equities research desk at IIFL Capital and JP Morgan. He has also worked with HSBC in their business intelligence team. Ravi was recognized as one of the “40 under 40” outstanding professionals in the Indian Alternative Investment industry by the Indian Association of Alternative Investment Funds (IAAIF). He is a member of the Professional Learning (PL) committee at the CFA Society India. He is also a technical consultant to Dvara Research, which is an organization that undertakes policy research to promote financial inclusion in India. He has also consulted with the Social Impact Investments team at United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). He regularly contributes to business newspapers and magazines (Economic Times, Mint, Business Line, Business Today, etc) on topics relating to the economy, finance and investing. He is a Masters in Economics from Madras School of Economics and CFA charterholder from the CFA Institute, US.

Litesh is the founder of Aureus Assets which provides services like business consulting, valuations, transaction advisory and wealth management. He is a qualified Chartered Accountant, Company Secretary and a CFA charter holder. Mr. Gada has over 14 years of experience in leading Private Equity investments, Investment Banking, Merger & Acquisition (M&A) transactions in the consumer, retail, real estate and agro sectors. In the past, he has worked with organizations like RSM & Co (merged with PwC), PwC India, Chess Capital, SEAF India and SREI Alternatives. He was awarded with ‘40 Under 40 Alternative Investment Professionals in India’ award by the Indian Association of Alternative Investment Funds (IAAIF) in January 2018. He has been a long distance runner since 2009 and has participated and successfully completed many full marathons and half marathons.

Vijayanand Venkataraman, CFA, has more than 20 years of experience investing in global markets and is the co-founder of Wealth Yantra Technologies Private Limited, an SEBI-Registered Investment Adviser. Until 2012, he was based out of Hong Kong SAR, managing a multiasset portfolio for global investment firms (hedge funds). His expertise spans asset classes that include equities, convertible bonds, and high-yield credit. In addition to managing his portfolio, he also assisted the chief investment officer in hedging the global macro and tail risks of the fund investments using derivative structures. In the early part of his professional career, he was part of the teams that advised the government of India on various policy implementation matters in energy, mining, and financial services. Venkataraman is a board member of CFA Society India. He is also a member of the Alumni Schools Committee (Undergraduate Admissions) at the University of Chicago. A mechanical engineer by training, he holds masters of business administration from BIM, Trichy and a MS in Financial Mathematics from University of Chicago, IL, USA.

Yogesh Sundaram, CFA, is the promoter of Omega Valuation Services, a Chennai based financial advisory firm, focused on valuation of businesses and financial instruments for private placement, mergers and acquisitions, corporate actions and other special situations. He was earlier a Director with Srinidhi Investment Advisors, an India focused Private Equity firm with a corpus of $100MM. Yogesh was responsible for managing the firm’s investments in private enterprises in India. Yogesh started his career in the investment management industry at Quantitative Services Group (QSG), a boutique independent research firm based in Chicago, minority owned by Goldman Sachs. Yogesh was a senior research analyst at QSG and was responsible for development of equity factor models, risk models and sector specific stock selection models for the equity markets in the developed world. Yogesh has also managed India focused equity portfolios for Estee Advisors, a boutique hedge fund based in Delhi. In all, Yogesh has about fifteen years of experience in financial services encompassing domains such as equity research, portfolio construction, portfolio risk management, product design and marketing of financial products. Yogesh has a Master’s degree in Finance from Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago. Yogesh holds the CFA Charter from the CFA Institute in Virginia, USA, is a Qualified Chartered Accountant, Insolvency professional and a Registered Valuer.

Sunil heads Gluefin Technologies, where he drives Process Automation for Financial Services Firms through the “Fruksh” platform. He has a decade of experience in financial services encompassing domains such as Investment Banking, Corporate Finance, Fixed Income Trading and RPA across geographies. Prior to Gluefin, firms that Sunil has served include MAPE Advisory Group, Reckitt Benckisser, Americana Group among others. He follows Taleb. Sunil completed his PGDM (MBA) from IIM Calcutta and Bachelors in Technology from IIT Guwahati. He holds the CFA Charter from the CFA Institute and is a Co-Chair of Professional Learning, CFA Society India.