Leadership Team
S. Sriniwasan
Managing Director
S. Sriniwasan (Srini) heads Kotak Investment Advisors Limited (“KIAL”). He is also a part of the Group Management Council that drives Kotak Mahindra Group’s growth charter.
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S. Sriniwasan
Managing Director - Kotak Investment Advisors Limited
S. Sriniwasan (Srini) heads Kotak Investment Advisors Limited (“KIAL”). He is also a part of the Group Management Council that drives Kotak Mahindra Group’s growth charter.
Srini has played a crucial role in setting up and building the different asset classes in KIAL including Real Estate, Infrastructure, Special Situations & Credit, Private Equity and Investment Advisory. Overall, KIAL has raised / advised ~USD 6.98 billion in funds across these asset classes. As one of the earliest fund managers to raise and invest capital in India, Srini has introduced significant financing, financial structuring and negotiating skills in the alternate assets industry. Srini joined the Kotak Mahindra Group in 1993.
Prior to KIAL, he was a part of Kotak’s investment banking joint venture with Goldman Sachs from inception in 1995, and was co-head of Kotak Investment Banking until 2005. At Kotak Investment Banking, Srini advised leading domestic and international companies on capital raising, M&A and strategic divestitures.
Srini is a member of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) subcommittee on Capital Markets. He is also a Board member of Asia Pacific Real Estate Association Limited (APREA) India Chapter and a member of the Governing Council of Global Real Estate Institute (GRI) – India Chapter. He was a Member of the Executive Committee at the Indian Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (IVCA) and is a Member of the Private Credit Council at Emerging Markets Private Equity Association (“EMPEA”).
Srini holds a Bachelor's degree in Commerce from Delhi University and an MBA from the Institute of Management Technology (IMT), Ghaziabad.
Eshwar Karra
CEO - Kotak Special Situations Fund
Eshwar joined the Kotak Mahindra Group in 2000 and brings with him over two decades of financial services experience.
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Eshwar Karra
CEO - Kotak Special Situations Fund
Eshwar joined the Kotak Mahindra Group in 2000 and brings with him over two decades of financial services experience. He is part of the core leadership team at Kotak Investment Advisors Ltd.
Eshwar is the CEO of Kotak Special Situations Fund where he oversees investments across all special situations, credit and stressed assets opportunities. The fund strategy is to invest in opportunities across all asset classes with a flexible approach to investing and structuring.
Prior to Kotak Special Situations Fund, Eshwar was the CEO of Phoenix Asset Reconstruction Company (a Kotak sponsored ARC) which had an AUM of USD 1 billion. During his 5 year tenure at Phoenix, he made investments across all major sectors and successfully resolved investments.
Eshwar was the founding member of the distressed assets business at Kotak and has helped the group in successfully investing over INR 2,500 crores (USD 417 million) of its proprietary capital in distressed assets. He has built time tested expertise in identifying distressed opportunities, structuring and executing complex financial transactions as well as securing profitable exits.
Prior to Kotak, Eshwar has worked at Ceat Financial Services (RPG Group) and Sundaram Finance Ltd.
Eshwar holds a Bachelor's degree in Commerce from the University of Pune and is a Management graduate from the Institute of Management Development and Research, Pune.
Vikas Chimakurthy
CEO – Realty Funds
Vikas Chimakurthy joined the Kotak Mahindra Group in 1999 and has over 21 years of work experience in the financial services industry.
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Vikas Chimakurthy
CEO – Realty Funds
Vikas Chimakurthy joined the Kotak Investment Bank in 1999 and has over 21 years of work experience in the financial services industry.
Vikas moved to Kotak Realty Fund in 2007. He is a Chief Executive Officer at Kotak Realty Fund where he oversees fund raising and investments and divestments.
Prior to Kotak Realty Fund, Vikas was in the M&A team of Kotak Investment Banking. His last role in the investment bank was as the head of the real estate and energy sector verticals. He had set up the coverage of the realty sector for Kotak Investment Banking. He has led several M&A transactions across sectors such as energy, telecom, technology, media and chemicals. He was also appointed as part time advisor to the Board of IL&FS after Government of India took control to resolve the issues.
Vikas holds a Bachelor's degree in Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, and an MBA from Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), Delhi University.
Suman Saha
Head - Infrastructure Fund
Suman Saha is Head of Kotak Infrastructure Fund at Kotak Investment Advisors Limited. Suman established the Infrastructure Funds management business of the Kotak Mahindra Group in 2013.
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Suman Saha
Head - Infrastructure Fund
Suman Saha is Head of Kotak Infrastructure Fund at Kotak Investment Advisors Limited. Suman established the Infrastructure Funds management business of the Kotak Mahindra Group in 2013. The Infrastructure Funds team currently advises three Singapore – based fund vehicles which invest in core infrastructure in India.
Suman joined Kotak Mahindra Group in 1995 in its investment banking business. At Kotak Investment Banking, as Executive Director and Co–Head, Equity Product Group, Suman was involved in the origination and end–to–end execution of Equity Capital Market (“ECM”) transactions, including Initial Public Offerings and Follow–on Offerings of Indian companies. He has led some of the largest Indian ECM deals, several of which were in the Indian power, transport, other infrastructure and real estate sectors, like NTPC, Reliance Power, KSK Energy, JSW Energy, IPCL, Indraprastha Gas, IDFC, DLF, Sobha Developers etc. Prior to that, Suman set up and ran the project finance advisory business at Kotak Investment Banking, advising companies in the steel, automobile, power, gas distribution, storage terminal and other sectors.
Suman has over two and a half decades experience in project finance, investment banking, and infrastructure investing and asset management. He began his career in project finance in IDBI, prior to joining Kotak.
Suman is a 1991 graduate in Electrical Engineering from Jadavpur University, Kolkata and completed his post–graduation in Business Management from NMIMS, Mumbai.
Rajeev Saptarshi
Whole-time Director & Chief Operating Officer
Rajeev Saptarshi joined Kotak Investment Advisors Limited as the Chief Operating Officer in November 2013.
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Rajeev Saptarshi
Whole-time Director & Chief Operating Officer
Rajeev Saptarshi joined Kotak Investment Advisors Limited as the Chief Operating Officer in November 2013. He is responsible for the Finance, Legal, Compliance, Operations and Investor Relations functions of the entire alternate assets practice of the Kotak Mahindra Group.
Rajeev brings with him a wealth of experience in dealing with the regulatory authorities and is well versed with fund structuring and compliance matters. Rajeev has been with the Kotak Mahindra Group for over 20 years during which he has held several senior management roles across different businesses. In his earlier roles, Rajeev was the Chief Operating Officer of the Institutional Equities business at Kotak Securities Limited, where he led Technology initiatives and also headed the Operations and Finance functions. He was also the Chief Financial Officer of Kotak Mahindra Capital Company, the Investment Banking arm of the group where he managed finance and operations.
Rajeev is a Member of the Executive Committee at the Indian Private Equity & Venture Capital Association (IVCA).
Rajeev is a Chartered Accountant and a Company Secretary.
Nitin Deshmukh
Advisor – Private Equity
Nitin is a career Venture Capital / Private Equity professional with over 33 years of investment experience...
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Nitin Deshmukh
Advisor – Private Equity
Nitin is a career Venture Capital / Private Equity professional with over 33 years of investment experience who has seen the growth of the VC and PE space from being a mere nomenclature to being one of the most preferred financing vehicles in the country. Nitin’s uncanny ability to identify trends and leaders in their infancy and helping them realize their potential, has been the hallmark of his career. He has lead and managed investments in over 70 companies, a number of which have grown at a scorching pace attaining leadership position in pharmaceuticals, consumer and retails sectors. Of these, the largest number have been in Life Sciences (Pharmaceuticals, Biotech & Health Care), many of them today's global players and include Sun Pharmaceuticals, Biocon, Intas Pharmaceuticals, Ajanta Pharma, Syngene, Manipal Healthcare, Natco Pharmaceuticals, Advanced Enzymes, Neuland Laboratories, Gland Pharma, Bharat Serums & Vaccines, Intas Biopharmaceuticals, Metahelix Life Sciences (since acquired), Rubicon, Fem Care, Medicorp (since acquired), Bangalore Genei (since acquired) etc. He was a member of the Board of Directors of most of these companies.
Since early 2019, Nitin has been spearheading Kotak’s investments in early stage investment program to support new age businesses and differentiated innovations especially in the life sciences sector in the country. The strategy here is to invest in transformational healthcare companies developing and commercializing novel therapeutics, medical devices and services that address unmet medical needs through innovation. The team has since built a sizeable early stage portfolio of companies in this space leveraging on extensive relationships with pharmaceutical companies and medical institutions to advance delivery of affordable patient care with determination to positively impact society.
Nitin has a strong association with the India's Biotech and Pharmaceutical Industry, having served as the first honorary Director General of Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises (ABLE), the apex industry association of biotech companies in India and serving as it’s Director actively participating in various policy committees related to Biotech Policy and Funding constituted by Government of India’s - Department of Biotechnology ( DBT) & Department of Science & Technology ( DST).
Nitin is actively associated with DBT and DST’s start-up funding initiatives in Biotechnology / Life Sciences as a member of their Investment and Advisory Committees as well as their mentoring activities. He serves as a member of the Board of Governors of Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT) (formerly UDCT) and is also an independent Board member of Veeda Clinical Research , AGD Biomedicals, Gencrest, Advy Chemical and Samta . Nitin also serves as a member of the Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) National Committee on Biotechnology.
Nitin holds an MBA degree from University of Bombay and a Masters Degree in Pharmaceutical Technology from ICT (earlier UDCT), Mumbai where his research work led to a patent filing on machine design for the manufacture of Novel Drug Delivery Systems. He also completed the Post-Graduation Programme in Pharmaceutical Technology at the University of Ghent, Belgium. Nitin is a recipient of the Distinguished Alumnus Award 2012 from the Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT), Mumbai earlier known as UDCT.
