Management Team

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Raj Bhatt

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.


Chairman & CEO – Elara Capital Group


 

Ajay Pandey

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.


COO & Head ECM


 

Harendra Kumar

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.


Managing Director – Head – Institutional Equities & Global Research


 

Mahesh Iyer

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.


Chief Technology Officer


 

Joseph K. Mammen

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.


Managing Director – Head: Elara Capital (Asia ) Pte Ltd


 

Savio D’Souza

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.


Head – Human Resources


 

David Somekh

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.


President – Head of Elara Americas


 

Ramnish Kochgave

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.

He holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) from IIM Lucknow and a Bachelors degree in Statistics (H) from University of Delhi


President – Investment Banking & Head ECM


 

Nitesh Shah

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.


Chief Executive Officer – Wealth


 

Kamal Kishore Sati

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.


Chief Financial Officer