The Team

Mr. Asthana has the responsibility of providing overall strategic direction to the firm and leading the management. He has significant experience in Investment Banking, Venture Capital & Private Equity advisory and Strategy Consulting industry. Prior to his current mandate, Mr. Asthana was heading the Investment Banking vertical of one of the largest advisory firms in India. In the past, Mr. Asthana has had stints at Big Four consulting firms (Ernst & Young and KPMG) as well. He has advised on several Corporate Strategy, M&A, Joint Venture, Capital-raising (debt & equity) and Due Diligence transactions. He is also a Member of the Institute of Directors (an apex body of directors in India representing business, industry and government) and a Life Member of the Delhi Management Association. Mr. Asthana has done his management education from MICA (Ahmedabad) and graduation from St. Stephens' College (Delhi).

In a career spanning over a decade, he has advised various large Indian conglomerates (including business houses like Tata, Mahindra, Essar), Fortune 500 corporations, SMEs, Institutional investors, Government authorities as well as new ventures. He has been interviewed by leading media publications and has been a participant at various leadership forums & conferences.

Mr. Asthana is passionate about entrepreneurship & financial markets in India and has also conducted workshops in association with reputed academic institutions. He is an active advisor to the Boards of many leading corporations and has exposure to Indian and International markets. His hobbies include reading (metaphysics, philosophy, humor), networking, playing tennis, travelling and community-development initiatives.

Mr. Mukherjee has a rich and varied experience of over 30 years in industry having spent a considerable time in the Automobiles, Automobile components, Chemicals & specialty Chemicals, Consumer Products, Crop Protection, Electrical Products, Fertilizers, Industrial Gases and Telecom Hardware industry segments.

Mr. Mukherjee was the CEO and M.D. of large and diverse industrial enterprises at a Board of Directors level leading complex multinational corporations (MNC’s) and Indian enterprises to achieve critical success. He was the M.D. & Country Head (India & South Asia) of Chemtura Corporation, USA as well as the CEO and Wholetime Director of Jubilant Industries Ltd. He was also associated with Havells India Ltd., Sterlite Optical Technologies Ltd., BOC India Ltd. and Tata Motors Ltd.

Mr. Mukherjee is a turnaround specialist having successfully turned around varied businesses across industry segments. He has stabilized large diversified businesses both in B-2-B and B-2-C segments. He has traveled all over the world and set up businesses across over 40 countries. He has direct in-depth knowledge of international business, sales & marketing, brand management, distribution, supply chain & logistics and operations.

He is a Mechanical Engineer and a gold medalist PG in Management from the prestigious Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIMC).

Mr. Mukherjee has pioneered a slew of initiatives across various industry advocacy platforms in his career. He has also been a member of the National Committees in CII and FICCI, Indian Chemical Council (ICC), Fertilizer Association of India (FAI) and on the Board of Crop Life International (CLI).

Mr. Sriskandarajah is an active investor in early stage European companies. Based in London, he has cofounded and managed an early stage investment fund focused on consumer centric ventures.

He previously worked at Rocket Internet launching multiple e-commerce ventures and led the HelloFresh operations in the UK. He was also appointed the inaugural Entrepreneur in Residence for the European Commission. He actively advises VC funds and Start-ups and is an active member of the European entrepreneurial ecosystem and was voted #77 - Wired 100 "Most Influential People in Tech", 2015.

Prior to his business career, Mr. Sriskandarajah spent time working for a social enterprise addressing educational imbalance and graduated from Imperial College London and Imperial College Business School.

With over 35 years of experience related to Banking and Finance, including Senior and Managerial assignments with Bank of India and other Private Sector Banks, Industry and Industry Chambers in India and abroad, Mr. Jain has wide exposure of the functioning of financial markets and the issues of Corporate world.

Mr. Jain is a postgraduate in Commerce (Hons) from Delhi University and a Certified Associate of Indian Institute of Bankers with several papers published in the areas of Business and Finance. Presently, he is also the Secretary General of Chamber of Indian Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (CIMSME)

In the past, he has been a Senior Advisor and Head (Banking & Finance Division), Associated Chamber of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).

Mr. Jain has travelled across many International Business Centres. His interests include reading, interacting with like-minded people and social work for the under-privileged. Young minds inspire him.

Mr. Ghosh has varied experience of over 30 years as leader of various global MNCs. He is a multi-sector Business Management expert with vast experience in leading & accelerating profitable growth of existing & new entrant MNCs both nationally and internationally.

He has led various MNCs including Expedien Inc. USA (for Cambridge Education Development, USA) as Executive Director; MMD Philips (JV between Philips, Netherlands and USD 13 billion TPV group) as Regional Director - India, Middle East, Africa, Central Asia; ViewSonic Corp (USA) as Country Head - India & South Asia and ZEBRA Technologies Corp (USA) as Country Head - India & South Asia.

Mr. Ghosh has assisted in developing and setting-up effective Sales, Marketing & Distribution strategy with demonstrated results for MNCs entering India as well as existing companies in Consumer, Education & Industrial Technology space cutting across various verticals.

Mr. Ghosh completed his Masters in Business Management and has participated in various Management Development Programs with IIM, Lucknow; Marketing Management in Micro, Small & Medium Scale Enterprise with Govt of India and several institutes internationally. His interests include reading self-help books, traveling, music and motivational speaking.

An investment banker, Mr. Chaudhuri has a deep background in Business Development, Investment, Corporate and Commercial Banking, Corporate Finance, Consulting, Syndication, Investment Research, Private Equity, Trade & Project Finance, Business Turnarounds, MSMEs, Credit Administration, Operations, Strategy, Compliance, Training, Mentoring & Building high-performance teams.

He started his career as Management Trainee with Punjab National Bank in 1985 and graduated to retail banking, lending and capital markets. Thereafter, he served HSBC, Zacks Investment Research Inc. and industry in investment & corporate banking including syndications, equity flotations, private equity, M&A, Joint Ventures, corporate finance, trade & project finance, business turnarounds, compliance and strategy. He has also written for Yahoo Finance by way of articles and columns.

Mr. Chaudhuri is a Master of Business Administration (MBA) with Beta Gamma Sigma Honors from Texas A&M University and Master of Commerce from the University of Calcutta. He and his family are based in Kolkata. Swimming, cooking and reading are his favourite pastimes.

Mr. Katoch is a specialist in International Business development. He has multi-domain experience of over 26 years across Manufacturing, Trading and Web-based platforms.

His experience spans across the geographies of Americas, Western Europe, Middle East & India. Most of his work has been in the areas of business development, consulting & outsourcing with a broad spectrum of firms - Start-ups to Fortune 500 such as Nestle & Halliburton. He has led teams across diverse functions such as Business Advisory, Sales, Procurement, Marketing & Exports both in US & India.

Mr. Katoch holds Post Graduate Diploma in International Trade from the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (Delhi). His interests include travelling to new places, watching plays & movies and water sports. He supports causes for Environment & Clean Energy and working with NGOs.

Mr. Mandal is a specialist in Telecom & Internet industry with in-depth understanding of Voice & Data applications and services. He has varied experience of over 25 years.

Mr. Mandal has served in leadership roles (CEO/CFO/CMO) in various Telecom VAS and Mobile Internet companies like Kirusa Inc., ACL Wireless, Cellnext Solutions (an Escorts Group company), Swisscom JV in India for GSM operations (now Vodafone), Telstra JV in India for GSM operations (now Bharti Airtel) and Escotel Mobile GSM operations (now Idea Cellular).

Mr. Mandal holds MBA from IIM (Ahmedabad) and B.Tech. (Electrical Engg.) from IIT (Delhi).

Mr. Mandal has extensively traveled across the globe to over 40 countries in Asia-Pacific, Europe, Americas, Middle East & Africa.

Mr. Rastogi is a specialist in Corporate and Commercial laws and transactions, Infrastructure projects, Capital markets and Project finance.

Mr. Rastogi has advised & represented clients from almost all the major countries in various business sectors. His areas of practice include Corporate Laws, Foreign Exchange Laws, FDI, JVs, Foreign Collaborations, M&A, Capital Markets (IPO, FPO, Rights Issue, Debt Offer, Bonds, Private Placement, SME Listing, Buy Back), International Taxation, Venture Capital & Private Equity, ESOPs & IPRs.

Mr. Rastogi has been consistently nominated as Asia's leading lawyer 2012 onwards for corporate / M&A in India. He is also a recommended Lawyer by Practical Law Company (U.K.) for corporate & business matters and Equity Capital Markets in India.

He is a regular speaker on various forums on legal and regulatory aspects of commercial contracts, cross-border transactions, private equity and venture capital.