THE CREDENCE ADVANTAGE

Chief Investment and Strategy Officer

Having started her career during the global financial crises, Chanchal Agarwal brings with her nearly 15 years of industry experience spanning verticals like Family Office investment advisory, Public markets research and analysis, Investment banking, and global investing, amongst others. As a Chartered Accountant and a CFA Charter holder, she has always focused on interpretations beyond numbers and joining the dots to build a holistic perspective.

In 2020, AIWMI recognized her among the “Top 100 Women in Finance”. She has been featured in the audio talk series ‘Show Me the Money’ by Meghna Pant (available on Audible). She has been quoted in various publications.

Managing Director

Ajay has worked across a spectrum of home-grown multinational companies in the wealth management and private banking space in a career spanning over 16 years. Over the last 5 years at Credence, he has onboarded several families and helped them build sustainable and efficient structures. He believes in adopting a long-term approach to clients’ family office needs. Ajay is an expert in risk management, succession planning, and business advisory. Apart from this, he actively mentors some of the internal functional teams at Credence.

Managing Director

Nitesh is an alumnus of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies. He has been in the field of wealth management and entrepreneurship for over two decades now. One of the first few members of the Kotak wealth management team and Barclays wealth management in India, Nitesh has a deep understanding of the nuances of the business. He has successfully sourced and managed several HNI relationships in his career and catered to their unique requirements. He is also the co-founder of a company in the construct-and-lease-back space, which is now a part of the family business.

Co-founder and CEO

As the founder of Credence Family Office, Mitesh brings nearly two decades of experience in managing wealth, investment advisory, and family offices. Before founding Credence, he held senior roles with CITI Bank and HSBC, focusing on developing investment strategies for high-net-worth clients. He works with several clients on areas related to global investment strategy, succession transitions, mentoring the next generation, business strategy, and more.

Besides Credence, he is an investor and/or advisor to companies like Klub (India’s premier revenue-based financier with 2500+ brand sign-ups), Alyf (India’s premier prop tech in the second/holiday home market), and Stockal (a global investing platform), amongst others.

Practice head — Based in Gurugram

Rahul has been in the FMCG, banking, and wealth management space for over 25 years. Prior to joining Credence, he was with HSBC and managed business development, strategy, branch banking, and private banking. His noteworthy experience in the FMCG industry has been instrumental in offering an array of services to our clients.

Practice head — Based in Bengaluru

Akshay is a veteran with over 18 years of experience across domains like relationship management, team management, MIS, sales, financial planning, equity advisory, wealth review, real estate and tax planning. He brings his insights on board at a holistic level, which is a great value add for our clients. An avid reader, he is inspired by astrophysics and human psychology and applies their theories in investing and managing clients as well as mentoring his team.

Founder & Director, ASQI Advisors and Scient Capital Pvt Ltd

Swapnil is a fintech professional with over 18 years of experience in the intersection of technology and financial services. He is also a keen researcher in macroeconomics.

As the founder of ASQI, he currently spearheads the core team of Newrl – a public blockchain aimed at mainstream financial services.

He graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay in 2002 and later earned his post-graduate degree from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad in 2004.

Swapnil has a wide experience across blockchain, quantitative strategies, multi-asset portfolio management, credit and alternate assets.

Earlier, he was a quant hedge fund manager at Engineers Gate, where he developed and deployed mid-frequency long-short India Equities strategy.

In 2006, he co-founded PARK Financial Advisors, an investment advisory boutique, later sold to a large Indian brokerage.

Earlier, he worked with The Boston Consulting Group advising clients across Engineering, Technology and Banking sectors.

He has authored two books in macroeconomics, titled ‘Anatomy of Froth – Demystifying the Global Financial Crisis’ (2010) and ‘Rethinking Money and Capital’ (2022)

He has been recognized as one of ‘40 under 40’ professionals in Alternate Investment space in India.

His interests include macroeconomics, blockchain, postmodern philosophy, cosmology and evolutionary biology.

Assistant Vice President – Taxation

Neha Joshi leads the tax vertical at Credence Family Office. As a qualified Chartered Accountant , Neha comes with more than a decade of experience on the direct tax front. Neha is well versed with cross border taxes, direct tax advisory, DTAA laws & relavant tax laws impacting HNI’s/ founders/ entrepreuners, and celebrities. Her previous stint was with H&R Block India for over 5 years.

VP & Head-Client Service & Operations

Aravinda has over 20 years of rich domain experience in client servicing. Over the years, she has built a committed team and manages some of the most respectable business families, entrepreneurs, and senior corporate heads in India. Before joining Credence, Aravinda has worked with Bank of America, Kothari Pioneer AMC (now Franklin Templeton AMC), Deutsche AMC, Scope International, and Wealth Managers United India Pvt Ltd. Digitization and automation are high on her priorities and expertise at Credence.

Visionary business leader

Sanjaya spearheads OmniActive Health Technologies Ltd. as the Chairman and Managing director. The said group is into branded Natural APIs and PFIs for nutrition, health, and wellness products.

His previous managerial positions include Managing director at Kancor and the CEO of the botanical extracts division of Bombay Oil Industries Ltd. Sanjaya led both the companies to grow significantly under his prudent leadership, operating globally and becoming leaders in their field of natural ingredients, extraction, isolation and purification, covering ingredients for food, personal care, and health care.

In 2015, Sanjaya sold his stake in Kancor and concentrated on OmniActives’ expansion. Having grown Omni, he has now taken steps to professionalize the management team and has stepped out of the operational management. Besides, he is associated as a Director and Mentor in many of his family companies, including Autohangar India P. Ltd., the largest Mercedes Dealership in India, and VKL.

He has always played significant roles in furthering the cause of the industry. Some of his associations are:

• Former Vice-chairman, Spices Board
• Former President – India Pepper & Spice Trade Association
• Former Chairman – All India Spices Exporters Forum
• Former Chairman – CII, Kerala
• Member, Southern Council of CII

He was instrumental in introducing online trading activities at India Pepper & Spice Trade Association while he was the President. He is also on the Board of several companies and has successfully promoted and closed a venture capital business. He has presented numerous papers at different forums and institutions. Currently, he is the Chairman of FICCI’s task force on Nutraceuticals and has recently floated AHNMI – Association of Herbal and Nutraceutical Manufacturers of India. He also represents the Indian Industry on the board of Natural Products Association in the USA and the Council for Responsible Nutrition in the USA.

A Commerce and Economics graduate, Sanjaya did his Diploma in Tax Management from J. Bajaj Institute of Management. With the zeal to learn more and outgrow at every level, he has also done Executive Education programs at IIM-A and Stanford University Graduate Business School.

He lives in Mumbai with his wife, Nandana, and two children, Niharika and Nihal. A wine connoisseur, a voracious reader, and a wildlife photographer by passion, Sanjaya, also takes a keen interest in art and golf.

Senior business advisor

Krishnaprasad comes with over two decades of experience across senior management and leadership roles across investment management, private banking, and wealth advisory. He has previously worked with Franklin Templeton Investments, HSBC, and Centrum Private Wealth. At HSBC, he expanded wealth management across India and was the head of sales for the Non-resident Indian vertical in his last role. Post HSBC, he joined Centrum Private Wealth and was part of the founding team.

Seasoned Corporate Executive and Entrepreneur

Mr. Suryanarayanan (a.k.a Surya), has over 33 years of rich professional experience, both as a corporate executive and an entrepreneur. After spending the initial years in the finance function at Union Carbide and Nicholas laboratories, he joined a family run pharmaceutical start-up company, Recon, and served as its Group Finance Director.

Surya has a Bachelor of Commerce degree and is a Chartered Accountant by qualification. He is an alumnus of the International Masters in Practicing Management program at INSEAD and holds a Masters of Management from McGill. Surya was the erstwhile Chief Operating Officer at NSRCEL(IIMB) where he successfully assisted start-ups and SMEs towards globalization. He was also the Head of Operations and CFO at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements. He is now an independent consultant advising start-ups to scale.

Vice-president — Research and strategy

Chanchal has over 12 years of industry experience across investment management, equity analysis, and investment banking. As a young Chartered Accountant and CFA Charter holder, her focus is always on interpreting beyond numbers and joining the dots to understand the macro perspective. She is a part of the investment committee. Along with the research team, she develops the macro and micro framework that paves way for the company to arrive at the right asset allocation for clients. She was recognized as one of the top 100 women in finance in India by AIWMI in 2020.

Managing partner, and CIO — TIW Private Equity

Mr. Mohit Ralhan is the Managing partner and CIO of TIW Private Equity. Mr. Ralhan specializes in buyouts, margin expansion, and turnaround situations. He has served on the advisory board of companies in the interest-rate sensitive sectors, FMCG, technology, education, consumption, media, digital businesses, real estate, and manufacturing consumption. He has been awarded The Economic Times Most Promising Business Leaders of Asia in 2019 in Singapore for demonstrating exemplary leadership qualities. Mr. Ralhan has been instrumental in the turnaround and scaling up of multiple companies across sectors. He drives productivity improvements and operating efficiencies focusing on sales and marketing effectiveness, performance management systems, strategic cost management, technology automation, capital allocation, and key strategic initiatives, resulting in margin expansion and a higher return on equity. His decades of experience in driving change management along with building a highly capable team with management depth helps the portfolio companies of TIW to tide over the challenges of achieving profitable growth.

Co-founder, and mentor

Gaurav’s expertise and interests lie in the development and deployment of portfolio strategies for premium private banking clients. He brings his decade-long experience of managing HNIs to build relationships, gain trust, and deliver on promises. A mechanical engineer, armed with an MBA in finance and marketing, he has managed a high net worth client book at Citibank along with being an advisor on their portfolios before he co-founded Credence. Gaurav is also the co-founder of WealthApp with Mitesh, a fintech platform that makes financial planning available to all.

Professor of strategy, Indian Institute of Management — Bangalore

Prof. Ramachandran’s research focuses on the strategic and organizational challenges of firms spanning areas of genesis, growth, and governance. His work has been published in the Harvard Business Review, Strategic Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, and Global Strategy Journal, among others.

Professor Ramachandran’s research has won multiple best paper proceedings and the IMD FDC Award from the Academy of Management, USA. His teaching cases have been recognized with best case awards from the European Foundation for Management Development, The Association of Management Development Institutions in South Asia, The Central and East European Management Development Association, and The Association of Indian Management Schools, and also the Tata Steel-IIMB award. Over the years, he has won multiple best teacher awards at IIM Bangalore.

Professor Ramachandran is the first Bain Fellow in India. A qualified Chartered and Cost Accountant, and a Fellow of the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Professor Ramachandran has been a Visiting Professor at INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France, the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, USA, and the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, USA.

He presently serves on the boards of Redington (India) Limited, Reliance Communications Limited, Sasken Technologies Limited, Allcargo Logistics Limited, Polaris Consulting & Services Limited, Aditya Auto Products and Engineering (I) Private Limited, ECU-line NV Belgium, and MVP International, USA.