Acuity Knowledge Partners

Karthik Vijayapalanis Business Development Director for Acuity Knowledge Partners in New York and oversees client relationships in the Americas within the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector. He is relationship manager and trusted advisor to leading banks, investment managers, hedge funds, fund-of-funds, private markets investors and private wealth managers, helping them accelerate growth, save costs, increase speed-to-market, scale operations, manage risk and meet regulatory compliance by strategically implementing our services.

Venkatesh leads the Capital Market Technology Services group under Specialized Solutions practice at Acuity Knowledge Partners. He works with multiple clients, providing support in solving business problems, developing automation tools/solutions aimed at enhancing productivity/efficiency of the existing processes and reducing turnaround time and cost. He has over 18 years of experience in delivering solutions based on MS Office Automation and Windows, and in web application development and database projects across multiple business domains and technology environments.

Manoj is responsible for IT strategy and enterprise solution architecture for Capital Market Technology Services group under Specialized Solutions practice at Acuity Knowledge Partners. He works with multiple clients, providing support on solution architecture and technology strategy. He has over 19 years of experience in enterprise solution architecture and formulating technology strategies.

Vinay is responsible for Capital Market Technology Services operations, supporting Business Development and Deliveries under Specialized Solutions practice at Acuity Knowledge Partners. He provides supervision of technological deliveries for multiple clients on software development, data management, data engineering, data visualization and more. He has extensive experience in program and/or project delivery management. He has over 18 years of experience in handling Quality Assurance for delivering multiple software development deliveries

Murugan has over 12 years of work experience in collateral analysis systems, structuring securitised deals (RMBS, CMBS, ABS, CDO), CMBS underwriting and structured finance research. He supports investment banks, providing solutions for their securitised products divisions. He is a structured finance expert with a demonstrated record of advising clients, including hands-on experience in structured finance analytics tools such as Collateral Analysis System (CAS), Intex Calc, and Moody's Structured Finance Workstation. He holds an MBA and a BE (Mechanical) from Anna University.

Aditya has over 9 years of experience in securitisation spreads across modelling, valuation, portfolio management and risk analytics. At Acuity Knowledge Partners, he is responsible for managing and developing our Structured Finance offerings. Aditya started his career as a Fixed Income Analyst and has a proven record of setting up and up-scaling analyst teams, facilitating knowledge transfer from onshore locations and enabling development of tech solutions. He is an alumnus of BlackRock, Deloitte and UBS. He is a CFA Charterholder and also holds a master's degree in Management and a bachelor's degree in Technology from the Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management.

Archana Anumula has over 12 years of experience in economics research, with proficiency in areas such as writing country-specific economic reports, real-time macroeconomic indicator release coverage, and building and maintenance of large datasets. She has been with Acuity Knowledge Partners since 2011 and currently manages the Economics Research Support team for a global investment banking firm engaged in sell-side research. She is adept at account management, team management and handling pilot projects. She holds a Master of Arts (Economics) and a Bachelor of Commerce from Bangalore University, India.

Charanjit Singh joined Acuity Knowledge Partners in October 2019 as the Head of ESG Research. He has more than 20 years of experience in Investment Research & Advisory, with a focus on ESG, Climate Change, and Clean Energy. Previously, he was a Senior ESG strategist with HSBC and the Co-Head of their India Onshore Research Centre. During his tenure of more than 11 years at the bank, Charanjit was instrumental in building and leading three sector teams for the bank’s global research business in India. Charanjit had been rated as one of the top five analysts in India/Asia in the Asiamoney Brokers Poll during 2012-15 for his sector coverage. He has been voted in the Extel Survey during 2010-14 and in 2017 for Climate Change and SRI Research. A research report co-authored by Charanjit received the first-runner up prize at the FARSIGHT Awards from London Accord in 2012. Prominent publications, including WSJ, Fortune India, FT and Financial Express, have quoted some of his research works. Charanjit has also worked with CRISIL (an S&P subsidiary), in addition to a leading energy company and a steel major. He has also been a consultant on assignments funded by DFID, CIDA, and the World Bank. An Engineering graduate, Charanjit also holds a Masters in Business Administration. He is a recipient of the Chevening Fellowship and has studied Financing and Investments in Low-Carbon Economy at the University of Edinburgh.

Sathya Natesh has 13 years of work experience. At Acuity, he manages teams providing support to global asset managers. He is experienced in transitioning, setting up and leading high-performance teams working on marketing collateral, RFPs/DDQs, client reporting, consultant databases, performance and risk reporting, website content management and process streamlining using automation. He holds a master’s degree in Business Administration.

Bharath has 13 years of work experience and has been with Acuity since 2008. He specialises in the capital markets domain, including providing fund solutions and fund marketing support to global asset managers and ETFs. He is actively involved in project management of teams that provide end-to-end support to asset managers on fund marketing activities, including commentary writing, fund research, talking points, Letter to Shareholders and preparing marketing collateral. Prior to Acuity, he was a commodity trader with Futures First.

Sumit has 13 years of work experience in fund marketing, investment reporting, portfolio analytics and data management for global asset managers. At Acuity, he is responsible for the delivery of fund marketing solutions such as consultant database updates, client reporting and generating marketing material. He is experienced in transitioning, setting up and streamlining fund marketing solutions for various asset management clients. Sumit holds an MBA in Finance and a bachelor’s degree in Information Technology.

Ravi has over 12 years of experience in data management and research, with proficiency in finding native data sources, data validation, data analysis and data automation. Currently at Acuity Knowledge Partners, is a Delivery Manager responsible for providing end-to-end data delivery to one of the top global hedge funds. He is experienced in different asset classes and multiple service lines, including operations, market research and financial services. He is an alumunus of Thomson Reuters. He holds a master’s degree in Finance.

Subhro has been with Acuity Knowledge Partners for over 8 years. He has 15+ years of extensive experience in credit analysis in the lending, counterparty and credit research domain. Subhro manages transition of new clients encompassing the credit analysis function across different lending lines of business. He has extensive work experience in banking products, process and systems across the lending value chain for global as well as regional corporate and commercial banks. He holds a Master of Commerce degree from Calcutta University.

Rajul heads the commercial lending practice at Acuity Knowledge Partners and has been with the firm for over 15 years. She is responsible for strategic planning, delivery oversight and management, quality assurance and supporting the innovation and technology initiatives in Lending. Rajul has extensive experience in investment banking analytics and commercial lending research services. Apart from banks, the teams she oversees also have in-depth experience in working across different lending products, processes and systems for Fortune 100 companies, SMEs and real-estate businesses. She holds a Master of Finance and Control, and a Bachelor of Commerce from Delhi University.

Faahika Fakir has 8 years of work experience. At Acuity, she heads delivery of several client accounts. She specialises in digital marketing sectors such as marketing automation, content management, and web analytics, and in account management, client engagement and project management of mid-size to large teams that provide end-to-end support to global asset managers on a variety of digital marketing activities.She holds a Bachelors in Computing and is a qualified Project Management Professional.

Fauzaan manages multiple Fund Marketing Services teams in Colombo focusing on the Digital Marketing practice. He has over 19 years of total experience in the software and capital markets industries. He currently manages the end to end delivery of all digital marketing accounts at Acuity Knowledge Partners. Prior to this, he played the role of head of PMO in Quantitative Research. Fauzaan holds a Masters in Project Management specialising in Business Administration and Bachelor of Science (hons) in Information Systems.

Vimal is a fund marketing professional, with over 14 years of experience in capital markets. He has experience in transitioning projects, setting up and managing core functional teams, and supporting consultant database, RFP/DDQ and other marketing functions. He has worked with several asset managers at Acuity Knowledge Partners to streamline their processes, helping them implement industry-best practices and deploy high-performing teams to achieve process and cost efficiencies. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Finance.

Narendra has been with Acuity Knowledge Partners (Acuity) since 2007. He has over 10 years experience in mutual funds, ETFs reporting and derivatives trading. At Acuity, he is responsible for project transition and setting-up high-performing teams to support client reports, factsheets, pitchbooks, performance reports, and investment writing for global asset and wealth managers. He has worked with several asset managers to streamline their processes, helping them implement industry best practices and achieve process efficiencies resulting in significant cost reduction. Prior to joining Acuity, he worked as Eurodollar trader. He holds master’s degree in management from Bangalore University.

Ramesh has over 19 years of experience in global capital markets – research and investment banking. Prior to joining Acuity Knowledge Partners, Ramesh worked with the offshore research and analytics units of Crisil and iGate, managing sell-side research and investment banking teams for global clients. He started his career as an investment banker at Ind Global Financial Trust (currently part of Ernst & Young’s corporate finance practice in India), advising companies on M&A and capital raising. He holds an MBA and a bachelor’s degree in Technology.

Rahul manages the Investment Compliance division, and is responsible for expanding and stabilizing the investment compliance team and enhancing the client experience. He has 10 years of experience in asset management compliance. He previously worked with firms including AXA, Goldman Sachs, and JP Morgan Asset Management.

Jalaj heads the Compliance Analytics team, with experience in anti-money laundering, customer due diligence, and market abuse prevention. He has worked in the areas of compliance, trading surveillance, and financial crime and information security and risk analytics. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Hons.) degree in Electronics and Communication.

Stevi heads the Portfolio Research and Operations (PRO) practice, and manages teams working with investment. He has over 12 years of experience in the investment management industry across portfolio analytics, manager research, investment reporting and data management. He holds an MSc in Physics.

Priya has over 16 years of work experience in supporting index and ETF players in managing both benchmark and strategy indices across asset classes. At Acuity Knowledge Partners, she has been instrumental in setting up and managing teams supporting large index providers for over 9 years. Prior to this, she was with Infosys, where she was involved in supporting an Index Quants team for a large investment bank, primarily in construction and maintenance of fixed income indices. She holds a Master of Economics from the University of Southern California and a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Mumbai.

Zohair heads Acuity Knowledge Partners' Forensic Analysis business, and is responsible for product innovation in the area of quality of earnings, corporate governance, and financial health checks. He has over 20 years’ experience in accounting and finance.

Shikha heads Acuity Knowledge Partners' (Acuity) editing, formatting & publishing and design services, managing all client accounts in this vertical. She has 16 years of experience in working with financial research content. Before joining Acuity, she worked with Goldman Sachs as a Series 16-qualified Supervisory Analyst and Editor. She also set up and managed its 10-member content management team in Bangalore. Her previous work at JPMorgan included reviewing equity research reports, and she focused on credit and industry and company research reports during her stint at Crisil Research (an S&P company). Shikha holds an MBA in Finance.

Sriram leads the Mathematical Modelling sub-group under the Specialised Solutions practice at Acuity Knowledge Partners. He primarily works with banks and asset managers, providing support for derivatives pricing/valuation, model research/enhancements, financial market risk analysis, model risk management and model validation. He has over 11 years of experience across service lines, including risk analytics, model validation, data analytics, statistical modelling and software development. Sriram holds a master’s degree in Operations Research from Columbia University, with a specialisation in Financial Engineering

Ramesh heads Data Management services at Acuity Knowledge Partners, responsible for driving projects on data collection, cleansing, maintenance, analytics and visualization to help asset managers and banks form informed business insights. He has rich experience across different asset classes and multiple service lines, including operations, market research, data analytics, and financial services.

Sumit heads Market Research Services at Acuity Knowledge Partners, responsible for managing innovation, market expansion strategy and continued enhancement of client returns. He has over 15 years of experience across multiple service lines, including consulting, market research, data analytics, strategic and business research, and financial services. He is an ESOMAR member.

Prabaldeep leads the strategy research and consulting practice at Acuity Knowledge Partners. He has over 13 years of experience working on assignments related to growth strategy formulation, go-to-market strategy, market entry and expansion (buy/build options), benchmarking, business transformation, process improvement, and more. He works closely with management, strategy, corporate development, competitive intelligence, innovation and procurement teams of clients across multiple industries.

Manish heads strategy research practice for consulting & corporate clients at Acuity Knowledge Partners. He has over 15 years of experience across consulting, corporates, investment banking and other professional services firms. Manish works closely with consulting partners and key decision makers to enable value creation in consulting assignments. He is seasoned in on-boarding new clients and takes ownership of setting up new teams, delivery structure and expanding product/regional coverage. Manish has been involved in various company level strategic initiatives.

Shubha has over 15 years of experience in statistical data modelling, financial data analysis, equipment finance, data management and analysis of data in market research. She has a strong grasp of statistical tools – SAS, R, SPSS, S-PLUS, RapidMiner and Tableau. She holds a Master of Science (Statistics) and a Bachelor of Science (Statistics, Mathematics and Computer Science).

Pradeepa has over 13 years of work experience, including 11 years in fixed income and credit research. She heads the fixed income and credit research teams across our global delivery locations. Pradeepa has extensive experience in setting up, scaling, and managing buy-side and sell-side client engagements, and working closely with clients to meet their evolving needs and exceed their expectations. Her asset class expertise includes focus on complex high-yield, distressed and defunct issuers; and US Municipals. Prior to joining Acuity Knowledge Partners, she was an associate in the audit and business advisory wing of PricewaterhouseCoopers. Pradeepa is a Chartered Accountant and holds a bachelor’s degree in Commerce.

Sumit heads the Private Equity & Consulting vertical at Acuity Knowledge Partners. He also oversees the China Delivery Center. Sumit is responsible for strategy formulation and implementation, innovation, and business development, in addition to providing oversight to delivery groups. He has more than 18 years of experience across diverse lines of services, including Private Equity, Consulting, Market Research, Investment Banking, and Commercial Banking. In his previous roles at Acuity Knowledge Partners, Sumit was instrumental in setting up an Investment Banking vertical and multiple other services. He also led the business turnaround of a subsidiary company as its COO. He is a Chartered Accountant and a national rank holder in the foundation level of ICAI.

As Head of Financial Crime Compliance (FCC) vertical, Kumail oversees the engagement management and delivery framework for Due Diligence operations, Transaction Monitoring and AML Analytics. He is also responsible to strengthen the vertical by recommending optimal business solution to clients and technology oversight for FCC vertical. Kumail has 25+ years of prolific experience in KYC/AML operations, back office operations, process migration, business analysis and system implementation, process deliveries and team building. He puts strong focus on identifying risk in a process and believes in leveraging his IT know-how for automating operations.

Jehan is global head of Compliance Services, serving buy- and sell-side clients. He was previously the head of global projects and transitions — equity, and led all inbound scoping requests and delivery solutions for buy- and sell-side clients. Jehan managed the setup and transition of several large engagements, including lift-and-shift of processes for clients across multiple work streams. He has over 17 years of experience in investment research and analysis, compliance, project management, audit control and systems implementation. He has led large projects and teams across multiple work streams and global locations and is a Certified Investment Advisor (Colombo Stock Exchange)

Tanya heads Forensic and Central Compliance practices. She has over 15 years of experience in the financial services industry. Prior to joining Acuity Knowledge Partners, she worked at Goldman Sachs as Vice President,GSAM Compliance as Bangalore team manager, line compliance officer for the India businesses, and lead for forensic and marketing compliance initiatives. Tanya has also handled marketing strategy and communications at GSAM and market research at Thomson Financial. Tanya holds a Bachelor of Business Management (Marketing) from Bangalore University.

Manish is the delivery manager and subject matter expert for the forensic testing compliance practice. He has over 8 years of experience in the financial services industry. Prior to joining Acuity Knowledge Partners he worked as an associate with Goldman Sachs - GSAM Compliance. He was part of the global forensics team and was part of the marketing and portfolio management compliance team. Manish was also part of the controls management team for the asset & wealth management team at JP Morgan and was part of the HSBC KYC remediation team for multiple lines of business.

Manjunath has over 13 years of experience in financial services and compliance offshoring in the areas of know your customer (KYC), anti-money laundering, transaction monitoring, email surveillance and foreign exchange. He previously worked at Deutsche Bank, Amicorp India Pvt. Ltd. and Thomson Reuters. At Acuity Knowledge Partners, Manjunath has been part of multiple engagement and is responsible for delivering KYC projects for the firm’s compliance clientele globally. Manjunath is a MBA in finance and marketing from Bangalore University.

Wilfred Peter has over 11+ years of experience in compliance and Investment banking having worked for firms including State Street Global Advisors and HSBC. His expertise spans across compliance and risk sector, focusing on compliance reviews of marketing/advertising materials and social media contents. At Acuity Knowledge Partners he is part of the central compliance team and specializes in marketing material review and social media reviews. Wilfred is a graduate (Bachelors of commerce) and hold a degree from St Joseph’s College of Commerce Bengaluru.

Rajesh heads the firm’s Central Compliance Services business unit and is responsible for setting up new central compliance practices managing client relationships, and ensuring overall delivery for the firm’s compliance clientele. He has over 13 years of experience in financial services and compliance offshoring. He previously worked in the compliance function of large global banks.

Puneet Prakash is the product head of the firm’s Compliance Services business unit. He is responsible for strategizing and creating optimal solutions for the firm’s Compliance clientele, globally. He has over 15 years of experience in financial services and knowledge offshoring. He has previously worked with firms such as TCS and WNS. Puneet holds an MBA (Finance & Marketing) from the Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode and a Bachelor of Technology from the Indian Institute of Technology, India

Sailaja Devireddy has 16 years of work experience and heads the Fund Marketing Services (FMS) division at Acuity Knowledge Partners. She specializes in the capital markets domain, including equity markets, fund solutions, and fund marketing support for asset managers and ETFs. She has vast experience in transitioning and leading global teams. She is actively involved in account management, client engagement and project management of large teams that provide end-to-end support to global asset managers on a variety of FMS activities. She is a qualified Chartered Accountant and Company Secretary

Chamara Gunetileke leads the Quant Equity Strategy practice at Acuity Knowledge Partners. He has over 14 years of experience in capital market research outsourcing across the equity, fixed income, and quantitative services verticals. He currently mentors several teams on end-to-end equity strategy development, from ideation and quantitative analysis/interpretation to professional research writing. Prior to this, he handled the scoping and execution of new equity and credit businesses at the Colombo office. He has provided offshore analyst support to equity and credit teams covering North America for large sell-side firms. Chamara is a CFA Charterholder and also holds a bachelor’s degree in Science.

Pedro Armstrong is a Director at Acuity Knowledge Partners and leads business development efforts in the Americas for the Corporate and Commercial Banking, Buy-side, and Sell-side segments. He is responsible for managing key client engagements and works in partnership with capital market firms to provide customized solutions across research and analytics support, origination and lending support, and marketing and compliance support. He has been with the organization for 12 years, serving in various roles across Sri Lanka, Costa Rica, and now the US. Prior to joining Acuity Knowledge Partners, he was a Central Bank Regulator at the Central Bank of Barbados. Pedro, who is a British Chevening Scholar, holds a Master’s degree (honors) in Banking and International Finance from Cass Business School, City University, London.

Chanakya Dissanayake leads the investment research vertical at Acuity and counts over 16 years with the firm. In addition, Chanakya manages the Colombo delivery center that provides investment research, quant – data science , commercial lending and FMS services. Investment research vertical is responsible for the buy-side, sell-side and private wealth management clientele that obtains equity and fixed income research from Acuity. Chanakya is a CFA charterholder and a fellow member of ACCA (UK) and CIMA (UK).

Anish has been with Acuity Knowledge Partners for over 13 years and presently heads the Investment Banking vertical. He is based out of our Gurgaon office and oversees delivery teams and client engagements for various bulge-bracket banks, mid-size banks, regional banks, advisory and boutique firms across M&A, Industry Coverage, Debt Capital Markets, Equity Capital Markets, Loan Syndications and Leveraged Finance. During his tenure, he also set up a shared services center for one of his clients in India. Anish is a Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and has done his Bachelors in Commerce from Delhi University.

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.

Niladri currently heads the Risk Management Services team at Acuity Knowledge Partners. He has more than 12 years of experience in roles spanning risk analytics, quantitative research, and general management.

Marie Filotti heads APAC Business Development at Acuity Knowledge Partners and is based in Hong Kong. She joined the firm in 2018 after 13 years in Investment Banking and Capital Markets, mainly at Nomura (previously Lehman Brothers), and also worked on the corporate side, having run Investor Relations at a China-based ASX-listed gas company. She uses her experience in the industry to advise our clients on best practices in implementation of engagements across all sectors. Marie holds a BA from Yale University and a Masters in Finance from Sciences-Po Paris.