ACUITYKP - Key Persons
Abel has a total working experience of 15 years and he has been with Acuity Knowledge Partners since the last 13 years. He currently heads the Investment Research and Private Markets business units in the Costa Rica office, which has over 100 analysts supporting global investment banks, asset managers, private equities, and venture capital firms, among others.
In his current role, Abel is responsible for setting up new teams for clients, ensuring quality and adherence to established timelines, driving strategy formulation and implementation, innovation, and business development, and providing oversight to delivery teams. He has also played an active role in developing business units such as Investment Banking, Consulting and Compliance at the Costa Rica office.
Prior to this, he co-managed a large team of more than 50 analysts that support the US Equity research division at a top global investment bank. He started his career at Acuity as an analyst covering US Diversified Financials and US Transportation and Airlines industries. Prior to joining Acuity, he worked as a Credit Analyst at HSBC Costa Rica. He holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from Instituto Tecnologico de Costa Rica.
Job Titles:
- Managing Director, Investment Banking, Private Equity and Consulting Business Development
Adrian leads Business Development across Investment Banking, Private Equity and Consulting clients in EMEA and APAC. He has 20 years' experience working in the financial services industry, having spent 13 years working in Equity Capital Markets for Rothschild and RBS, before moving to Acuity Knowledge Partners in 2013. He has a deep knowledge of financial markets, having originated and executed over USD50bn of ECM transactions across a wide range of sectors, products and geographies. He has extensive experience working with and advising the majority of Investment Banking coverage and product groups, and leading global Private Equity firms. Adrian holds a MA (Hons Oxon) in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford.
Job Titles:
- Senior Director, Head of Bangalore Operations
Our Bengaluru delivery centre, located in India's technology hub, houses more than 2,000 staff and is one of our oldest and most diversified delivery centres. It is a model of excellence, encapsulating our drive to innovate and ensure quality and dedication to clients and where we foster a vibrant work environment that encourages teamwork and a startup culture. As a natural progression, the office also houses our tech-centric services and an IT and innovation hub.
Our diversified and skilled finance professionals have extensive experience and are committed to providing innovative solutions..
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Non - Executive Director
Alan Middleton has joined Acuity Knowledge Partners' board of directors as a non-executive director. Alan will act as an advisor to the board of directors and the executive team.
In his career of more than 20 years, he has consulted for over 400 client organisations and operated in every major geography. Based in London, Alan is a non-executive director at PA Consulting Group and the Carlyle portfolio company Anthesis.
He is an operating executive focused on the technology and business services sectors. He served for 15 years as CEO and board member of PA Consulting, including leading the firm through Carlyle's investment in 2016 until the successful exit to Jacobs Engineering in 2021.
In his role as CEO, Alan guided PA Consulting teams to enable their clients to create opportunity from complexity and to have a positive, lasting impact on people and the planet.
Alan studied at the University of Edinburgh and Stanford University and is a Fellow of the Institute of Engineering and Technology. When not advising organisations on navigating dynamic business environments, he enjoys driving and racing vintage sports cars.
Job Titles:
- Country Head, Costa Rica Delivery Centre
- Head of Costa Rica Operations
Alejandro Wittmann currently heads the Acuity Knowledge Partners Costa Rica Delivery Centre, with over 220 employees. He manages relationships with sell-side and buy-side firms, commercial banks, and consulting firms, to provide high-quality financial services including investment banking, investment research, commercial lending, risk management and business intelligence services. He works closely with the Sales and Delivery teams to develop and execute local strategy needed to achieve the delivery centre's growth and profitability targets. Alejandro also works with the HR and Delivery teams to develop and execute plans to retain and attract talent.
Alejandro joined Acuity in March 2007 and gained wide exposure from working in various teams in different roles - from working as a financial analyst supporting a sell-side client, covering the pharmaceutical and the broader healthcare sector; supervising an equity research team servicing the research department of a large investment bank; to managing two of Acuity's enterprise-level accounts.
Alejandro started his career as a junior consultant at KPMG and then joined WMC as a consultant. In these roles, Alejandro was part of the financial advisory services team, engaged in company valuations, analysis for mergers and acquisitions, feasibility studies, restructuring processes and financial modelling. He also prepared company valuations, feasibility studies and market analyses for companies in Costa Rica's beverage, medical and service sectors.
He holds a Bachelor of Science in Commerce (Finance) from the University of Virginia, a Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of Costa Rica, and Master of Science in Biotechnology from the Johns Hopkins University. Alejandro is certified as a Pharma/Biotech Sector Expert (Acuity) and Python Programming (University of Michigan).
In his free time, Alejandro tracks the capital markets. He is passionate about wildlife conservation and is a sponsor of wildlife conservation organisations.
Acuity Knowledge Partners (Acuity) launched its Costa Rica delivery centre in 2006. In the 17 years since, Acuity has become the #1 KPO in LatAm providing real-time support to clients in the Americas. Our team of 250 people has expanded rapidly and currently supports over 40 clients across different verticals, including Investment Research, Investment Banking, Lending Services, Private Markets, Consulting & Corporates, Compliance and Specialized Solutions. Our solid track record of delivering high-quality output and adding value have made us a trusted partner for some of the largest global investment banks as well as..
Job Titles:
- Managing Director, Head of Investment Banking
Job Titles:
- Chief Human Resources Officer
- Member of the Board of Directors
The Gurugram office, with over 2800 employees, is Acuity Knowledge Partners' oldest and largest delivery centre. Gurugram and the surrounding NCR are home to a vast pool of management and finance talent. We have collaborated with most of the prestigious institutes in the region for campus recruitment drives. In addition, we have employed many seasoned finance professionals from global banks and financial services companies.
We believe that our ability to attract, engage, develop and retain talent is the cornerstone of our success. ..
Avadhesh has around 24 years of experience in human resource management at companies in the UK, Ireland, the US and Europe. Apart from being the CHRO, he leads Acuity's compliance, corporate services and CSR activities. He joined the business in 2016 and is based in our Gurgaon office.
Prior to Acuity, Avadhesh was regional head of HR at Moody's Corporation. Before this, he held HR leadership roles at GE Capital, CMC Ltd and Tata Consultancy Services Ltd in India and other countries.
Avadhesh holds an MBA in Human Resources from the Delhi School of Economics of the University of Delhi, with a graduate degree in Economics. He is certified as a Global Professional in Human Resources (GPHR) by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), USA, and is a regular speaker at Indian national HR and CSR conferences.
Avishek Suman manages the Investment Research business at Acuity Knowledge Partners, Beijing. He has close to 19 years of work experience in research, including 15 years in Acuity Knowledge Partners. Prior to assuming this responsibility in Beijing, Avishek served as Delivery Manager for buy-side and sell-side clients.
Job Titles:
- Director, China Country Head
Bill has been with Acuity Knowledge Partners for more than 13 years and has over 16 years of work experiences in the financial services sector. He has been a supervisor and delivery manager for various accounts in investment banking, credit research and others, before assuming the overall management responsibility of China office (Beijing). Currently, Bill manages overall China entity's operation in delivery and enablement. He also drives the China office new business development and talent management.
Prior to joining Acuity Knowledge Partners, he worked as an Audit Associate in Mazars International (Beijing), the largest CPA firm in France and among the top in Europe. He holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Economics (Finance) from the University of International Business & Economics, China and a Bachelor of Business Studies (BBS) in Finance & Accountancy from Massey University, New Zealand.
Acuity Knowledge Partners entered the China market in 2009. Since then the Beijing delivery center team has worked diligently to extend quality support to global financial institutions resulting in becoming the #1 KPO service provider in China.
Our team of over 160 people have been supporting leading investment banks, global strategic consultants, private equity firms, asset managers and hedge funds, etc. We specialize in the greater China market research coverage, including Japanese and Korean market research support. In the last few years, despite the COVID hit to the global economy, we have still grown..
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Managing Director - Co - Head of Global Delivery Operations
- Managing Director and Co - Head of Global Delivery Operations
Chanakya is Managing Director and Co-head of Global Delivery Operations and oversees the Investment Research, Specialised Solutions, Financial Marketing Services, Lending Services and Compliance business units.
In his past 19 years with the firm, Chanakya has managed multiple roles. In his last stint, he managed the Colombo delivery centre that provides investment research, quants, data science, commercial lending and FMS services to Acuity's global clientele. He was also responsible for all aspects of research delivery and client relationship management for the Investment Research business unit. This unit is responsible for buy-side, sell-side and private wealth management clients who use Acuity's equity and fixed income research.
As a founding employee, Chanakya has played many other roles, including heading strategic initiatives and launching new-analyst training programmes accredited by the CFA Institute.
Prior to joining Acuity in 2003, Chanakya covered the banking sector and telecom sector as an Analyst at DFCC Stockbrokers, Sri Lanka. He was also a founding employee at Frontier Research, a boutique investment research firm in Colombo.
Chanakya leads Acuity's inter-generational Network-BRIDGE-involved with fostering an understanding among generations and promoting inter-generational dialogue and at the same time challenging generational stereotypes and beliefs.
In his free time, Chanakya spends time pursuing adventure sports such as dirt biking, mountain biking and kayaking. He also owns a motorcycle and is a weekend runner.
Chanakya is a CFA charterholder and a fellow member of ACCA (UK) and CIMA (UK). His exemplary leadership in the financial services research sector was recognised when he was listed twice in the 40 under 40 Business Leaders in Sri Lanka Awards hosted by the Echelon Magazine.
He is an experienced business leader respected in Sri Lanka for being an innovator, disruptor and builder of business by creating jobs and developing new ways of doing old things.
Job Titles:
- Senior Director, Business Development
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Principal Permira
Chris focuses on investment opportunities in the Services sector. He has worked on a number of transactions including Alter Domus, Evelyn Partners and Lowell. Prior to joining Permira, Chris worked for Barclays supporting the Group COO and CEO on corporate strategy for four years. Before that, he spent four years with LEK Consulting in London and Shanghai, with a focus on the financial services sector and private equity clients. Chris holds a degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) from Oxford University, England, and an MBA from INSEAD, France.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Chief Revenue and Marketing Officer
Welcome to Acuity Knowledge Partners where our team of talented professionals works on integrating client ideation with innovative transformative strategies, achieving outstanding outcomes for our clients.
At Acuity, we offer support across the financial services spectrum, collaborating with investment bankers, asset managers, private equity, venture capitalists, hedge funds and commercial and retail banks. We also work with consulting firms, currently serving 3 of the top 5 consultants globally.
In banking, our expertise spans investment banking analytics and support, commercial lending underwriting, risk, and compliance. In the asset management space, we have deep expertise across all forms of asset management - long-only equity..
Damian leads all sales, account management and marketing activities at Acuity. He joined the business in 2015 and is based in our London office. He has more than 35 years of financial services experience in sales, marketing and commercial product development, and experience in leading large commercial teams.
Prior to Acuity, he was a managing director at Moody's Analytics, leading sales teams in Europe and Africa, and was instrumental in the integration of Copal Amba with Moody's Analytics. He was also a managing director at Standard & Poor's for 10 years, heading all sales, marketing and client services, armed with his substantial credit, lending and risk experience. He is also experienced in digital transformation, product development, M&A, integration/divestiture and setting up joint ventures.
Before this, he held senior commercial roles at Thomson Financial, Financial Times Group, Barclays and Hill Samuel.
Damian has been happily married for over 33 years, blessed with three children and two beautiful grandchildren. He enjoys spending time trekking in the countryside. He also enjoys sea and snow sports and spending time with his two dogs.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Principal, Head of Asia Permira
Daniel focuses on investment opportunities in the Services and Technology sectors. He has worked on a number of transactions including Acuity Knowledge Partners, English First Kids & Teens, Magento, Pepperjam, and Tricor. Prior to joining Permira, Daniel worked for Serent Capital for two years, investing in middle-market growth businesses. Before that, he spent two years with Barclays Capital's investment banking division covering the Technology sector.
Daniel holds a degree in Economics and Music from Vassar College, USA and has an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, USA.
David has more than 20 years of experience in the technology sector. He leads technology, innovation and digital transformation for Acuity since 2017 and is based in our London office.
In his current role, he heads our digital transformation programme that delivers new digital services to augment the capabilities of our analysts in delivering world-class services to clients. David also leads the team that offers software-as-a-service digital products that clients can use.
In addition, he leads our innovation process - designed to augment our capabilities with new solutions, processes, and tools, and introduce new technologies and ways of working to improve internal business processes and outcomes for clients. He is also responsible for information technologies and information security.
Prior to Acuity, David worked for Moody's Analytics for 10 years as a managing director leading the development and delivery of several credit risk products, including leading the division dedicated to bank capital stress-testing solutions. Before this, he worked as a consultant for Frog Design and ThoughtWorks in San Francisco, where he assisted numerous large firms with their technology transformations.
He is a champion for Employee Resource Groups, especially focused on bringing women to technology. He heads Illuminate, the company's internal innovation programme.
David is interested in technology and enjoys travelling and spending time with his two dogs. He has a background in computer and data science and has studied contemporary leadership theory at the University of Cambridge.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Non - Executive Director
- Knowledge Partners' Board of Directors As a Non - Executive Director
Dr Sunil K. Singh has joined Acuity Knowledge Partners' Board of Directors as a Non-Executive Director. He brings a wealth of experience in technology development and application to Acuity's boardroom.
A technologist with a distinguished career, Sunil has hands-on experience in conceptualising, designing, building, and launching innovative technology products and services. As GlobalLogic's Chief Technology Officer, he oversaw the firm's delivery excellence charter, including Horizontal Practices in modern technologies such as Big Data, Machine Learning, Cloud, DevOps, Security and Design. He also led the firm's Advisory and Consulting Group working with key customers on technology strategy and roadmap and was a key member of the Executive Team that led the sale of the company to Hitachi.
Prior to joining GlobalLogic, he held multiple executive roles in organisations including Managing Partner at Citadel Ventures (investing in technology start-ups) and CEO and CTO at venture-backed Informance and led it to a successful PE exit.
A Ph.D. from Cornell University and B.Tech. from IIT Kanpur, Sunil has held faculty appointments at universities including Dartmouth and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He also holds patents in virtual reality and robotic surgical devices. Sunil is a voracious reader and enjoys playing tennis and watching movies
Job Titles:
- Director, Head of Delivery FMS
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- Global Head of Marketing and Communications
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- Chief Financial Officer
- Member of the Board of Directors
- CFO, Managing
Ian is CFO, managing Acuity's global Finance team spread across seven countries. He joined the business in 2021 and is based in our London office. He is responsible for providing value-added business insights and driving organic and inorganic business growth; maintaining investor relations with both equity and debt funders; formulating, advising on and implementing strategic initiatives that drive growth in enterprise value; and tax, treasury, financial control, FP&A, change and transformation, and finance operations.
Since joining Acuity in May 2021, Ian has helped the business drive significant organic growth with increasingly insightful datasets. His key deliverables are executing Acuity's first acquisition in 2022, a debt refinancing in 2022 and a successful PE-to-PE exit with the sale to Permira in 2023.
Ian has more than 25 years of financial services experience in investment banking, private banking and private equity-owned companies.
Prior to Acuity, he was managing director at HSBC, working in New York, London and Geneva in CFO, COO, strategy and transformation roles. Before this, Ian worked at Merrill Lynch, Barclays Capital and Bankers Trust, based in London and Sydney. He also worked as CFO of LeasePlan UK for three years. He is experienced in managing large international teams.
Ian enjoys travelling, having lived in several countries, and is always looking to try new cultural experiences. He loves sports, especially football, rugby and cricket. He is married and has three teenage children.
Fellow Chartered Accountant - Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales; trained with PricewaterhouseCoopers. He holds an honours degree in Economics from the University of Manchester.
Job Titles:
- Country Head Sri Lanka
- Country Head, Sri Lanka Delivery Centre
Colombo was Acuity Knowledge Partners' first delivery centre, with operations starting in 2003 with 10 employees. We now support more than 75 logos through eight business units and with more than 500+ employees.
Sri Lanka remains a resilient and attractive outsourcing destination, ranking among the top 25 outsourcing destinations in the AT Kearney Global Services Location Index™ in 2021 and being awarded the Delivery Destination Award by the UK's Global Sourcing Association (GSA) in 2019. Colombo has the largest pool of UK-qualified accountancy professionals outside the UK, with professional qualifications such as CIMA..
Job Titles:
- Chief of Staff
- Managing Director
- Member of the Board of Directors
Joyce joined Acuity Knowledge Partners in 2024 and works with Robert King, CEO, the Executive Committee and Business Unit Leaders on numerous projects to support the firm's growth ambitions and continuing corporate development.
Joyce has more than 19 years of financial services experience in investment banking and private equity. Prior to Acuity, she was a Partner at Bridges Fund Management, a sustainable and impact private markets investor and a Partner at Equistone Partners Europe, where she was responsible for end-to-end investments in the UK. She started her career with the investment banking team at Merrill Lynch London.
Joyce is married with two children and enjoys playing badminton and watching sports.
She holds a BA / MEng in Engineering from the University of Cambridge.
Job Titles:
- Director, Business Development
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- Director, Lending Services
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- Senior Director, Corporates and Consulting Research
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- Head of Asia - Pacific Business Development
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- Senior Director, Co - Head of Investment Research
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- Director, Investment Research
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- Managing Director, Head of Business Development in North America
I am thrilled to introduce you to our dynamic office that stands as a beacon of growth and excellence for our organization in the heart of New York City.
Job Titles:
- Chairman
- Chairman of the Board of Directors
- Board of HBOS Plc As COO
Philip Gore-Randall has extensive experience in large private and publicly-held international organisations. He spent the first 25 years of his career at Arthur Andersen. Besides several managing partner roles, he was elected UK Managing Partner in 1997, having previously run the UK and European Assurance and Advisory practices. In 2001, he became Managing Partner and COO for the worldwide practice, and the following year he co-led the worldwide dissolution of Arthur Andersen. He then became COO of Aon UK, following two years as CEO of its Risk Services division.
In 2007, Philip joined the Board of HBOS plc as COO, when it was one of the five major UK-based international retail banks and served in that role until it was acquired by Lloyds Banking Group in 2009. He was also the HBOS Integration Director leading up to, and after, the acquisition.
Since then, Philip has built up a portfolio of non-executive roles, which currently include serving as Chairman of three other international private-equity-backed businesses:
• Forensic Risk Alliance, a leading international forensic accounting, data analytics and e-discovery business
Job Titles:
- Senior Director, Private Equity and Venture Capital Services
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- Associate Director, Business Development
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- Chief Executive Officer
- Member of the Board of Directors
Robert King is the Chief Executive Officer at Acuity Knowledge Partners, managing all lines of business of the global organisation. He joined Acuity in 2017 as CEO and is based in our London office. He oversaw the business transition from corporate ownership to private equity and management ownership and has been pivotal to the rapid growth and diversification of the business in recent years, including the addition of new service lines and locations, as Acuity has scaled to serve over 500 financial services clients.
Prior to Acuity, Robert worked for Moody's Corporation for 20 years, in a variety of roles. He was appointed Executive Director of Global Sales, Customer Services and Marketing in July 2013 after having previously managed the Moody's Analytics Sales team for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. He also spent four years, based in Hong Kong, managing Moody's Analytics Sales teams for the Asia-Pacific region. In addition, he has served as Global Head of Sales for Moody's Enterprise Risk Solutions business.
Before Moody's, Robert worked in the private banking division of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group.
Robert is a father of two children and an avid follower of English Premier League football and the England cricket team.
He holds a Master of Eastern European Studies from University College London, University of London, and a Bachelor of Political History from the University of Sussex.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Partner, Head of London Permira
Robin is a Partner in the Services sector based in London. He joined Permira in the TMT team in London in 1999 and, after completing his MBA at INSEAD in 2001, spent three years in the Frankfurt office before returning to London.
In 2012 he moved to the Hong Kong office to lead the Technology sector in Asia, whilst also increasingly covering financial services and the Services sector more broadly. Robin has worked on a number of transactions including All3Media, Acuity, Alter Domus, Debitel, English First Kids & Teens, Full Truck Alliance, Motus, Premiere, ProSiebenSat.1 and Tricor. Prior to joining Permira, Robin worked in M&A at CSFB and BZW in both London and San Francisco, focusing largely on the Technology sector.
Job Titles:
- Head Financial Marketing Services
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- Director, Business Development
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- Member of the Board of Directors
- Managing Director - Co - Head of Global Delivery Operations
- Managing Director and Co - Head of Global Delivery Operations
Sumit is Managing Director and Co-head of Global Delivery Operations and oversees the Banking Group, including Lending Services, Investment Banking, Sell-side research and Consulting businesses. Sumit is responsible for organisation strategy, planning and overseeing daily business operations, development of new products and services and overseeing client-servicing excellence. He is also involved in development and implementation of policies for business growth and expansion.
With over 22 years of experience, he was one of Acuity's first employees and was instrumental in setting up the initial business teams and laying the foundation for industry best processes to differentiate Acuity's operations from the competition.
Sumit led Acuity's subsidiaries as Chief Operating Officer and was responsible for business reorganisation, transformation and growth. He also launched multiple new services and business units. In addition, he led a number of strategic initiatives, including management and integration of acquisitions, and growth of technology products, and provided oversight to the China delivery centre.
Before joining Acuity, Sumit worked as a Senior Consultant with a leading audit firm, managing statutory and internal audits. He is a Chartered Accountant with The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI).
As the Chair of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) Council for Acuity, he works closely with the council and the wider company to define the vision for DE&I and help the teams execute it. He is also part of the CSR and the POSH committees.
Sumit enjoys reading autobiographical, business, spiritual and philosophical books; and loves travelling, especially road trips. He is a paw parent to a three-year-old Shih Tzu.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Board of Directors
- Partner Equistone
Tim joined Equistone in 2005 from KPMG, where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant and subsequently focused on private equity transactions. He heads the Business Services sector in the UK.
He has worked on deals in a variety of sectors and has broad experience of the investment, portfolio management and exit processes. He currently sits on the boards of Acuity Knowledge Partners and adm. He has also worked on and been responsible for many other transactions, including Audley Travel, Easynet, FirstPort, MRH (GB), Hydrasun and OneOcean. Tim graduated from Nottingham University with a degree in Classics.