I was born in India, but by the age of 27 I had lived in Indonesia, Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. My parents come from different professional backgrounds and encouraged me to pursue my dreams — within boundaries. Growing up across continents gave me four languages, three nationalities and an instinctive appreciation for the richness that different perspectives bring. I met my Norwegian wife in London; she grew up in a small town of fewer than two thousand people, while the smallest city I grew up in had a population of ten million. We have a beautiful multi-ethnic daughter who has inherited our nationalities and, we hope, the languages too.
I went to Queen’s University in Canada on a full scholarship — never having experienced snow before. After a few cold emails I landed an internship at Morgan Stanley with an offer to return full-time in 2008, right before the financial crisis. Watching the firm nearly fail was nerve-wracking for an immigrant student dependent on the income. After two foundational years in M&A, I realised my true calling was investing.
I began on the buy side at Asian Century Quest, a Tiger Cub hedge fund in New York, before moving to Legal & General Investment Management in London as a Portfolio Manager. Over eight years at LGIM I managed global equity and multi-asset strategies and teams and discovered a deep passion for coaching, mentoring and talent development. Most recently I was Head of Investments at Ownership Capital, a pioneering global equity manager integrating long-term investing, sustainability and active engagement.
Personally, I am driven to improve ethnic diversity in senior leadership and to support young families and returning-to-work mothers. As part of a young family with a working wife — and having been raised by a mother who always worked — I have a first-hand understanding of the challenges and trade-offs involved. I believe cognitive diversity is integral to improving decision-making quality on boards, in management teams and in investment portfolios. Just as history doesn’t repeat itself but often rhymes, people from different parts of the world have different backgrounds but can share similar values — and it is in bringing those perspectives together that we make better decisions.