OUR TEAM

Gautam Prakash is the Founder and CEO of Monsoon Capital. For the past 12+ years, Gautam has focused exclusively on developing innovative investment strategies in India which take advantage of India's unique market characteristics and investment opportunities.

Prior to launching Monsoon Capital in 2004, Gautam was an advisor to ChrysCapital, a multi-billion dollar private equity fund based in New Delhi, India. From 1993-2001, he was a venture capitalist and partner at Bessemer Venture Partners, one of the country's oldest venture capital firms. As a General Partner, he co-led the health care practice and served on the boards of numerous portfolio companies. Prior to joining Bessemer, he worked as a management consultant for McKinsey & Company in New York from 1991-1993.

Gautam holds a BS in Molecular Biophysics and Biochemistry from Yale University with summa cum laude honors and Distinction, in Economics, graduating in 1991.

Rishi Kohli is the Chief Investment Officer at ProAlpha Capital, a subsidiary advisor to Monsoon Capital, and is responsible for the overall management of Monsoon Capital's public equities investment strategies including portfolio construction and risk management.

Rishi's experience in the Indian capital markets goes back to 2001. Prior to joining Monsoon Capital's India office in 2007, Rishi was Head of Equity Derivatives at SSKI Securities, one of the largest domestic Indian institutional brokerages at the time (now IDFC Securities). Rishi started the Equity Derivatives desk at SSKI in 2004 and was responsible for growing the business from zero to over 5% institutional market share. Prior to SSKI, Rishi worked in Derivative Sales at Refco (now Phillip Capital) in Mumbai and, earlier, in Derivatives Research at ICICI Securities between 2001 and 2003.

Rishi received a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India in 1999, and a Master's degree in Business Administration from the Indian Institute of Management at Lucknow, India in 2001.

Mehul Patel is a Portfolio Manager at ProAlpha Capital, a subsidiary advisor to Monsoon Capital, and is primarily responsible for Monsoon Capital's fundamental long/short equity strategy, MIDAS, including managing the fundamental factor-based stock screening and bottom-up company research processes.

Mehul has over 12 years of experience in fundamental and quantitative research in the Indian capital markets. Prior to joining Monsoon Capital's India office in 2008, Mehul was a member of the Alternative & Quantitative Research desk at Edelweiss Securities for 3 years, where he built successful models across fundamental factor, statistical arbitrage and options strategies. From 2004-2008,

Mehul worked at Morgan Stanley Advantage Services, providing quantitative research assistance to the London Proprietary Trading Desk.

Mehul completed his Graduation in Commerce from Jai-Hind College Mumbai in 2000. He also holds a Master's degree in Financial Management from LalaLajpatrai Institute of Management Studies, Mumbai.

Gaurik Shah is a Portfolio Manager at ProAlpha Capital, a subsidiary advisor to Monsoon Capital, and is primarily responsible for Monsoon Capital's managed futures strategies on equity indices and foreign currencies.

Gaurik has over 9 years of experience in quantitative research and trading in the Indian capital markets including developing systematic strategies and trading models for possible inclusion in absolute return portfolio models. Prior to joining Monsoon Capital's India office in 2010, Gaurik was a junior Delta1 trader at RBS Hong Kong where he initiated quantitative-based trading for the Asian desk. Prior to that, he spent 3 years at MAPE ADMISI Securities, a domestic institutional brokerage house, as a quantitative research analyst in the institutional brokerage division. Gaurik spent the initial few years of his career as a programmer at two of India's best-known software companies, namely Infosys and Cognizant.

Gaurik completed his Bachelor's degree in Engineering (Instrumental & Control) from PICT Pune in 2003. He holds a PGDBM from XLRI Jamshedpur.

Viral Mehta is the Senior Trader at ProAlpha Capital, a subsidiary advisor to Monsoon Capital, where his primary responsibility is for all trading activity across all investment strategies.

Viral has a total of 15 years of sell-side experience in Indian capital markets. Prior to joining Monsoon Capital's India office in 2007, Viral was an equity derivatives trader with SSKI Securities - one of the largest Indian institutional brokerage firms (now IDFC Securities). Prior to SSKI, Viral worked as an equity trader at Asit C. Mehta Securities in Mumbai.

Viral completed his Graduation in Commerce from Bombay University in 1996. He also holds NSE (National Stock Exchange, Mumbai) Certifications in Capital Markets and Equity Derivatives.

Nikunj is a trader at ProAlpha Capital, a subsidiary advisor to Monsoon Capital, and is primarily responsible for trading for the private funds and managed accounts. Given his technology experience, he is also responsible for any information technology related requirements of the India office.

Nikunj has over a decade of experience in the Indian equity market. Prior to joining Monsoon Capital's India office, Nikunj spent eight years an equity derivatives trader at IDFC Securities and at ICICI Securities.

Nikunj is a Microsoft Certified Professional and holds a Derivatives Certification from National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM).

Russell Makepeace joined Monsoon Capital as COO in 2016. Russell is responsible for operations, finance and accounting across Monsoon Capital's U.S. and India offices.

Russell has over 22 years of experience in finance, accounting and operations. Previously, Russell spent five years leading accounting and fund operations teams at several divisions of JP Morgan globally. He also spent a number of years at Principled Capital Management (a $1.6 billion equity long/short hedge fund)as a finance and operations manager, at UBS Fund Services as a fund accountant and at Cantor Fitzgerald as group financial controller. He has gained in-depth expertise in a full range of corporate financial accounting and operational functions, including process improvement, reducing operational risk and enhancing profitability. He also has extensive international experience, having worked in Southeast Asia, Europe the Caribbean and the United States.

Russell graduated from Murdoch University (Aust.) with a Bachelor of Commerce degree in Accounting in 1993 and earned his MBA in international business from Deakin University (Aust.) in 2008. Russell earned his CPA (Aust.) designation in 1995.

Rajesh Bhatt is VP of Operations at ProAlpha Capital, a subsidiary advisor to Monsoon Capital, and is primarily responsible for all functions in India related to tax, accounting, operations and regulatory compliance.

Rajesh has 29 years of extensive experience in financial services. Prior to joining Monsoon Capital's India office, Rajesh held various roles where he was handling back office operations, compliance, accounts, custodial and depository participant's activities, registrar and transfer agent roles for various firms including CAN Bank Mutual Fund, Apple Mutual Fund (now part of Birla), GIC Mutual Fund, ICICI Venture Fund and SICOM Ltd.

Rajesh holds a Bachelors of Commerce Degree from Mumbai University (1987) with special subjects as Financial Accounting & Auditing.

Soodesh Jowaheer joined Monsoon Capital in 2008 and is the Director of Regulatory Affairs and Compliance. He oversees the firm's compliance obligations across all jurisdictions, including the United States, Mauritius, India and Cyprus, and across all assets classes, including public equity, private equity, debt and real estate.

Before joining Monsoon Capital, Soodesh was a financial regulatory consultant, advising on projects relating to the development of policies and institutional framework for financial system regulation, offshore finance, regulatory compliance and corporate governance. Prior to that, he was Senior Executive (Policy and Research) at the Mauritius Financial Services Commission, where he was involved in the development of regulatory policies, laws, regulations and advisories for financial institutions. Soodesh also holds experience in licensing, compliance monitoring and supervision of non-bank financial institutions.

Soodesh is a Graduate and a Fellow Member the Governance Institute of UK (formerly the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators - ICSA), a UK-based association of corporate governance professionals. Soodesh is also a Member of the Professional Standards Committee of ICSA. He holds an MBA and an Associate Degree in Human Resource Management from the University of Mauritius and a Certificate in Education from the Mauritius Institute of Education.

Kathleen Dolan joined Monsoon Capital in 2006 as Office Manager and Executive Assistant. As the company grew she obtained an HR Generalist certification from the Society of Human Resource Management and expanded her role into HR management. Prior to joining Monsoon, Kathleen worked doing administrative management at Washington Real Estate Investment Trust. She grew up in a family business and ran her own business for many years prior to transitioning to corporate work and brings a life time of practical business management experience plus a diverse skill set.

She attended St. Mary's College of Maryland.