Arvind Mathur, CFA, FRM

Asia’s Pioneer in Private Equity.

Chairman , Private Equity Pro Partner.

Former President, IVCA ( Indian Venture and Alternate Capital Association).

Former Head- Capital Markets, Asian Development Bank

He is a member of the Independent Advisory Committee of a portfolio institution of a $14 billion New York-based special situations fund. He is also the Chairman of Private Equity Pro Partners.

Arvind gained exposure to ESG, impact and sustainability principles at the Asian Development Bank. He led a team investing in private equity funds which gave him the opportunity to integrate ESG and impact principles in the investment activities of several funds and in the ADB’s own equity investments in several portfolio companies.

Arvind authored various articles on corporate governance as well as engaged with leading pension funds such as CalPERS, CDPQ and the BT pension funds to promote corporate governance.

He gained experience in leading two associations, namely the Impact Investors Council and the Indian Venture Capital & Private Equity Association (IVCA).

Arvind has over 40 years of experience in a wide range of asset classes globally including listed equities, private equity, fixed income, convertibles & and real estate. His experience spans the US to emerging markets during multiple economic cycles.

He has also served on the SEBI Committee on Alternate Investment on Mr. Narayan Murthy Panel.

He co-invested with sovereign wealth funds like GIC, Temasek, the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority & the Brunei Investment Authority. He interacted with the State Oil Fund of Azerbaijan and several central banks like the Bank of Korea, the Bank of Japan, and the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

Arvind’s experience encompasses both fund and direct investing. He has been a member of Investment Committees and fund boards and the global pension fund of the Asian Development Bank (ADB). He worked with Limited Partners such as ADB, the IFC, CalPERS, La Caisse de Depot et Placement du Quebec, the Prudential Insurance Corporation & leading institutional investors in Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, and India. Arvind promoted corporate governance in these funds, particularly those involving CalPERS. He authored articles on corporate governance and attended courses at the Columbia Business School and that of Cornell University & an investment course at the Harvard Business School. Arvind has undergone a variety of training including investment banking at Goldman Sachs & Citi in New York and in capital market regulation at the US Securities & Exchange Commission etc. He holds CFA and FRM.

Dr. Suman Banerjee

Stevens Institute of Technology, NY,USA

Formely at Nanyang Business School (NTU),Singapore.

Dr. Suman Banerjee is an Associate Professor of Finance and the director of Ph.D. programs at the School of Business of the Stevens Institute of Technology. He was previously faculty at Asia’s leading NTU ,Singapore (Nanyang Technical University) School of Business and Finance. His research interests include theoretical modeling and empirical analysis with applications to areas of corporate finance such as corporate governance, behavioral corporate finance, risk management, and energy finance. Dr. Banerjee has published extensively in top-tier finance journals like Review of Financial Studies (RFS), Journal of Financial Economics (JFE), Journalof Finance and Quantitative Analysis (JFQA), Journal of Corporate Finance (JCF). Dr. Banerjee also published in top-ranked cross-disciplinary journals like Management Science (MS) and Journal of Business(JB). Dr. Banerjee received the Caeserea Award for the best paper in risk management from the prestigious Western Finance Association in 2002 and BankScope best paper award from the Australian Finance and Banking Conference in 2010. He was honored as a Junior Research Fellow by the Indian University Grants’Commission and Center for Advanced Studies Scholarship while pursuing a master’s degree at Delhi School of Economics. He has obtained several other merit-based awards in the course of his academic career. Dr. Banerjee is a lifetime member of the multiple finance-related national and international associations and the editor-in-chief of an open-access finance journal.He is also a knowledge-based consultant for Bloomberg Inc. and other reputed corporates.

Prof. Raphael Douady

Prof. Raphael Douady is a world- renowned quant, mathematician,statistician and economist specializing in data science, financial mathematics and chaos theory at the University of Paris I-Panthéon-Sorbonne. He formerly held the Frey Chair of quantitative finance at Stony Brook University and was academic director of the French Laboratory of Excellence on Financial Regulation. He earned his PhD in Hamiltonian dynamics and has more than 25 years of experience in the financial industry. He has particular interest in researching portfolio risks, for which he has developed especially suited powerful nonlinear statistical and data science models, as well as macroeconomics and systemic risk. He is the Mathematical Founder with Prof Nassim Taleb on Anti-Fragility Theory( in context of Black Swan , Extreme risks) and other industry training works. He has produced many original seminal works including New Non-Linear Polymodel approach to Factor Strategies as significant improvement to traditionally popular factor based approaches.

He also advises several quantitative hedge funds and family offices on their risks and trading strategies. Douady is a founding member of the Club Praxis, a New York-based think tank advising the French government on its economic policy and sits on the board and, previously on the investment committee, of Friends of IHES, a foundation supporting the Institut des Hautes Etudes Scientifiques (the French brother of Princeton IAS).He was awarded a gold medal at the International Mathematical Olympiads.

His father, Adrien Douady, a renowned mathematician (a close colleague and friend of Benoit Mandelbrot) known for works on Mandebrot set and Douady Rabit and others.

Professor Ravi Sundar Muthukrishnan (Ph.D, Finance)

Former Professor (Finance & Accounting) at IIM Lucknow
Currently Visiting Faculty at Leading IIMs & Management Schools
Co-Creator of Modelware, Morgan Stanley

Prof. Ravi Sundar has had an illustrious career across academia and corporates being mainly in academia till 2005 and then mainly in the corporate world since 2006. He held senior and important positions in leading global and Indian corporates like Morgan Stanley, ICICI Securities, Elara Capital and Antique Stock Broking.

As a Professor, Finance and Accounting, he taught postgraduate and doctoral students subjects like Financial & Management Accounting, Corporate Finance, Corporate Valuation, Corporate Restructuring and International Financial Reporting.  He also trained IAS, IPS, IES, IFS officers and senior management of many leading public sector enterprises ( ONGC, GAIL, Indian Oil, SBI, NTPC and BHEL) and private enterprises in India.  Published research in leading national and international journals and consulted for the Govt. of India and many companies.

At Morgan Stanley, he developed a global proprietary valuation framework “Modelware” for clients and use by Investment Banking and Equity Research Teams.  Worked closely with Professors from Columbia University in building this framework which is quite popular with Morgan Stanley and its clients even today across the globe.

As Head of Research at some of the leading Indian institutional brokerages, he has written on Market Strategy and done highly differentiated quant model-based thematic research which was highly appreciated by the leading Fund managers across India, many of whom are his past students. He has regularly interacted with leading CIOs and Fund Managers and shared ideas on equity valuation, stock selection and portfolio management and even done some training programs for Fund Managers of some leading Mutual Funds.

He has also regularly met with CEOs and senior management of companies to share ideas and work closely with them.  In the recent past, he has addressed the top management/consulted for companies like M&M, Mahindra Finance, Persistent Systems, Minda Group, Midhani, Motherson Sumi and Mahindra Logistics.

Alla Gil

Co-Founder & CEO, Straterix
Ex- Global Head, Strategic Advisory – Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and Nomura

Alla Gil is co-founder and CEO of Straterix, which provides unique scenario tools for strategic planning and risk management.

Prior to forming Straterix, Alla was the global head of Strategic Advisory at Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and Nomura, where she advised financial institutions and corporations on stress testing, economic capital, ALM, long-term risk projections and optimal capital allocation.

She has also delivered invited trainings at leading organizations including US Govt. Treasury Department etc. She is also a regular columnist for Global Association of Risk Professionals.

Vijoy Prakash, IAS(Retd.)

Former Chief Secretary Rank Officer,Govt. Of Bihar,India
Chairman,Bihar Vidyapith
AIC_AIM, NITI Aayog,Govt. Of India
Educationist

He is the Chairman of a reputed historical organization since Indian Independence where he also oversees Education and Startup activities supported by NITI Aayog,Govt. Of India. He is a very Senior IAS Officer (Retd.) in the rank of Chief Secretary. He has wide experience of working at the top level in a state in the field of Human Resources/Education, Planning and Development, Social Welfare,Co-operation, Industries among others. Widely acclaimed for his researches in the field of creativity and innovation, he is also credited to have developed an innovative system of education known as ‘Creative Learning’. He has applied this theory for holistic development of human beings. Especially this has been used to empower underprivileged by developing their creativity. He has also developed a large number of books and teaching learning materials for the development of concentration, memory, thinking, imagination, visualisation, power of observation and emotional management.

He has higher education background in Physics where he had published advanced research papers on Black Holes in Astrophysics journal, The American Astronomical Society long back.

Dr. Espen Gaarder Haug

Dr. Espen Gaarder Haug is a world- renowned expert who has many years of experience in market making and options trading at banks such as Den norske Bank, Chemical Bank, and J.P. Morgan Chase, as well as at multi-billion-dollar hedge funds like Paloma Partners. He later spent time in academia as a finance professor, while primarily conducting research in theoretical physics. He is now back in finance and is involved in a fintech startup in London focused on options pricing and hedging. Haug is the author of several books, including The Complete Guide to Option Pricing Formulas, Derivatives: Models on Models, and most recently: Wall Street Short Stories: Economic Warfare, Corruption, and Greed.”

Dr. Nishith Desai

FOUNDER, NISHITH DESAI ASSOCIATES (1973-PRESENT)

Dr. Nishith Desai is the founder of the research & strategy driven international law firm, Nishith Desai Associates (www.nishithdesai.com) ranked amongst the Asia-Pacific’s Most Innovative Law Firms by Financial Times.

Nishith’s interest span a wide spectrum of law, society, and ethics. He is a renowned international lawyer, author, lecturer, researcher, innovator and thought leader. Nishith himself is regarded as the ‘Father of International Tax’ in India and is a ‘true pioneer’ in the field of International Tax Law. In the year 2023, for his contribution to the jurisprudence of international tax in India, Amity University awarded him the Honorary Doctorate degree. He was also a director on the board of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (2011 2019).

Soon after India opened its economy to the outside world in 1991, Nishith pioneered the roots of the asset management industry in India. He has assisted the Governments of Mauritius and India in launching their offshore financial centres. He established the first five India Focused Funds. He played a seminal role in structuring several private equity funds in addition to structuring several domestic venture capital funds. The firm has now worked for over 1400 funds across all asset classes. The Financial Times, London has consistently ranked Mr. Nishith Desai as the most innovative lawyer and the firm, Nishith Desai Associates as the most innovative law firms in Asia. The firm has been consistently recognised amongst Tier 1 for multiple practice areas and received accolades from international legal directories including Chambers & Partners, Legal500, AsiaLaw, Benchmark Litigation, IFL1000, WorldTax, Who’s Who Legal, Asia Legal Business, and Indian Business Law Journal. Nishith is also passionate about supporting social good, and under his guidance, NDA has remained at the forefront of the social sector in India.

NDA is one of the founding members of the Impact Investment Council in India. He has worked closely with Nobel Laureate Prof Yunus on social issues and personally received Prof. Mohd. Yunus ‘Social Business Pioneer of India’ in 2010.

Dr. Chintan Vaishnav

Researcher & Lecturer, MIT (USA) | Former Mission Director, Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog, Government of India

Prof. Chintan Vaishnav is a socio-technologist, an engineer trained to design and build large-scale system that possess both human as well as technological complexities. His three-decade career spans Bell Laboratories, MIT, and the Government of India, where he led the Atal Innovation Mission, NITI Aayog, Government of India one of the world’s largest national innovation programs. He chaired the creation of the Startup20 Engagement Group during India’s G20 Presidency in 2023. Currently, he is a researcher and lecturer at MIT, building the U.S.–India deep-tech corridor.