ELARACAPITAL - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Chief Operating Officer and Head of Capital Market
Ajay is the Chief Operating Officer and Head of Capital Market business. He is part of the founding team and responsible for the overall growth of the Elara group of companies. He has more than 27 years of experience in the financial services industry. Previously, as an entrepreneur for two years, he invested discretionary funds for his clients in emerging markets. Prior to that, he worked with Kotak Mahindra. He has a Master of Business Administration degree from the Faculty of Management Studies, Vadodara, and Master of Science from M.S. University, Vadodara.
Job Titles:
- Head of Elara Capital 's Americas
David Somekh is the head of Elara Capital's Americas business, spearheading activities in the region. David joined Elara Capital's London headquarters in 2008 where he was instrumental in building up the Capital Markets division, in 2010 he moved to New York to start Elara's Americas business. The team works with institutional investors and corporates around the world, focusing on Corporate Finance origination/execution, Cross-Border M&A, Emerging Market Sales/Trading, and third-party LP fundraising. Prior to this role, David worked in a number of different areas including speculative energy investment, interest rate futures investment, sales/trading, and management accounting, previous firms include BP and Fujitsu. David graduated with a theoretical physics degree from University College London.
With over 20 years of experience in the profession and has built several highly successful and profitable sell side businesses, primarily in Institutional & Retail equities, sales, trading, research and distribution, Harendra Kumar spearheads Elara Securities´ institutional equities business in India as well as its cutting edge global research. Prior to joining Elara Securities, he worked with ICICI Securities and Centrum Broking. He is a Commerce Graduate and holds a postgraduate degree in law.
Located in Singapore, Joseph currently heads the firms' expansion in South East Asia. His primary focus is to grow Elara's investment banking platform to cater to corporates in the region as well as enhance cross border deals flows by leveraging on Elara's presence across Europe and the United States. The team will also originate and execute regional Corporate Finance, Structured Debt and M&A mandates. Joseph was previously heading the Sales & Trading activities at the London, New York, Singapore and Mumbai offices, originating and executing IPO, QIP, GDR and Convertible Bond new issues. Joseph has over 10 years' experience in investment banking, he has previously worked with Aberdeen Asset Management and GE Capital. Joseph holds a first degree in Economics from Madras Christian College and a Master's degree from Manchester Business School, U.K. He's been with Elara since 2005.
Kamal joined Elara Securities (India) Private Limited in November 2007. He is a Chartered Accountant having 17 years of experience in private practice including consultancy and diversified accounting in the manufacturing industry. He has extensive exposure to System Application Products - Enterprise Resource Products and has the credit for the successful implementation of the FICO module of SAP.
Job Titles:
- Non - Executive, Independent Professional Director at Elara
Lord Meghnad Desai is a Non-Executive, Independent Professional Director at Elara. In addition to being the Emeritus Professor of Economics at the London School of Economics and Political Science, he was awarded the Pravasi Bharatiya Puraskar in 2004 and the Padma Bhushan in 2008. He is the former chairman and active member of the British Labour Party.
Lord Desai holds over 25 books and 200 articles in learned journals to his name and is also an Honorary Fellow of the London Stock Exchange. He holds a Masters's Degree from the University of Mumbai and is a PHD from the University of Pennsylvania. He was awarded the ‘SKOCH CHALLENGER AWARD FOR LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT IN ECONOMICS' in 2014.
Mahesh has over 25 years of experience in the IT industry working for various organizations in India and UK. He has an Electronics Degree and has extensive experience in the application of technology mainly for the financial services sector. He has managed multiple technology teams in the design, development and implementation of technology and infrastructure solutions for various domains like Asset Management, Investment Banking, Broking, finance, manufacturing, outsourcing and product development.
Nitesh Shah has been a leader with over 30 years of experience in the Financial and Banking Industry. His presence in the industry has given him the opportunity to interact with the elite and influential personnel in the industry enhancing his corporate relationships. He was effectively involved in close working relationships with CEOs and CFOs of industry leaders in various organizations over the years which have enhanced his presence in the financial industry across the globe.
Nitesh has decades of experience maintaining and handling private client portfolios across India and the globe and he also managed a venture for more than 4 years and raised capital in a very short period of time. Nitesh strengths lie in his efficient strategies to various Organizations and ventures by assisting them with business development and capital raising requirements. His experience as a wealth manager could efficiently advise super affluent client and family offices for portfolio management system. His educational background is Master of Business Administration (Finance) and qualified Cost Accountant.
Founder of global investment bank Elara Capital, Raj Bhatt has been successfully executing some the industry's most innovative financial transactions for over three decades. A financial re-engineering and fund-raising expert Raj has handled some complex transactions across seven different locations spread over three continents. He has an outstanding track record in restructuring, mergers, and acquisitions and in raising equity and debt in international markets. He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and a member of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India.
Raj founded Elara Capital in 2002 and is Chairman & CEO of the group. Today, Elara is established primarily as a capital markets business, raising funds for several Indian corporates. The group has diversified further into corporate advisory, asset management, broking, mergers, acquisitions and private equity. Elara has offices in India, New York, Singapore, Mauritius and London.
Rakesh has over 20 years of post-qualification progressive experience in Senior Positions in listed and multinational companies in the securities market, finance, operations, compliance and legal, corporate secretarial, takeovers, and managing IPOs and Institutional placements. Prior to joining Elara as Director, he worked with CLSA Group.
Rakesh has been involved with transaction management of IPOs/Rights/QIP/PE/Open offers and has worked on numerous cross-border transactions. He has been responsible for setting up Elara in India and also for starting new offices in Singapore, Mauritius, and New York. He is a commerce graduate, holds a post-graduate degree in Law (Professional), is a fellow member of ICSI, and is also a qualified CPA from USA .
Currently, Rakesh is practicing as a Corporate Lawyer, registered with Bar Council of Maharashtra and Goa. He deals with Corporate Laws and Securities Laws including the Companies Act, FDI, M&A, FEMA, SEBI Laws, RBI, NBFC, Arbitration, Contract, etc. and regularly appears before RBI, SEBI, Stock Exchanges, SAT, NCLT, NCLAT, High Court, etc.
Ramnish has had extensive experience in Investment Banking and Equity Capital Markets. Over his career spanning more than 2 decades, he has worked with companies across Large Cap, Mid Cap and Small Cap, on fund raise and advisory. He brings with him broad based experience in areas of Capital Markets, M&A, PE, and restructuring & advisory business.
Ramnish has been with Elara Capital since Feb 2019, prior to this, he was working with SBI Capital Markets Ltd.
Savio has over 18 years of experience in Human Resources across Organizations in Financial Services, Retail, Manufacturing and Distribution. He has led the Human resource function and has expertise in Talent and Performance Management along with HR strategy. He has been instrumental in building business teams in his past assignments. He completed his B.Sc (Geology) and holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management from Goa Institute of Management.
Prior to Joining Elara Capital, he was with SBI Capital Markets Ltd.
Shankar has combined experience of thirty-five years in Management consulting, Manufacturing, and Financial Services, He has led manufacturing businesses in India and in South Africa. Key career achievements were, concluding a joint venture with an Austrian company; setting up a greenfield project in India; managing the acquisition of an Engineering company in South Africa.
Shankar has been associated with Elara Capital, since its inception. In the initial Years (2004-2010) he has worked on mandates for the issuance of Equity and Convertible bonds. In the subsequent years, he has participated in the Strategy formulation for Elara Capital's businesses.