Mala Gaonkar
Mala Gaonkar’s SurgoCap Partners hedge fund began trading with $1.8 billion under management last week, in what is believed to be the largest female-led hedge fund launch in the history of the industry. ‘industry. The New York-based company will use data science to invest in how technology can improve other sectors such as finance, manufacturing, healthcare and enterprise data, according to a Bloomberg report. The company, which has about 20 employees, will bet on and against stocks and will be able to invest up to a quarter of its assets in private companies. A representative for New York-based SurgoCap, however, declined to comment.
According to her profile on Wikipedia, Gaonkar was a founding partner at investment firm Lone Pine Capital, where she worked for 23 years and served as a portfolio manager of the firm’s exposure to technology, media , internet and telecommunications and co-portfolio manager of the long – funds only. In 2022, she left Lone Pine Capital and launched SurgoCap Partners.
She was a Kauffman Scholar and attended Harvard University and Harvard Business School. She had worked for the Boston Consulting Group and Chase Capital Partners. She is a trustee of Ariadne Labs, as well as the Tate Foundation, the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Technology and the Clinton Health Access Initiative. Gaonkar was born in the United States and raised mainly in Bangalore. She is married to private equity investor Oliver Haarmann; the couple live in London with their two sons. An author with published short stories; Gaonkar co-founded the Surgo Foundation in 2015 to focus on using artificial intelligence and behavioral science to solve global health issues. In 2020, she co-founded a non-profit organization Surgo Ventures to advance this cause by developing strategic partnerships with other groups. She took the Giving Pledge to commit the majority of her wealth to philanthropy, according to reports.
Divya Nettimi
Last October, Divya Nettimi’s Avala Global debut, which began with more than $1 billion in committed cash, also grabbed headlines as the biggest launch of a female-led company. in industry history and among the biggest of all to debut in 2022. Like Gaonkar, Nettimi, 36, had also established herself at larger firm Viking Global Investors, where she worked for seven years. In July 2021, she founded Avala Global, of which she is the Chief Investment Officer. A portfolio manager who oversaw more than $4 billion at Viking Global Investors before leaving last year, Nettimi will bet on and against stocks in the consumer, business services and technology, media and technology sectors. telecommunications, while also supporting private companies, according to a Bloomberg report. last year after launch. A representative of the firm, however, declined to comment.
Devika Agarwal
Devika Agarwal, Macro Portfolio Manager, Balyasny Asset Management (BAM), Singapore, featured in the annual 50 Leading Women in Hedge Funds in November 2022; published by Hedge Fund Journal, a leading magazine focused on the global hedge fund industry. Agarwal joined BAM, a global investment firm with more than a dozen offices around the world, in April 2021 and is based in the Singapore office, according to an Instagram post from the company. She joined Barclays where she was Head of Global Emerging Markets Trading. She runs a macro module at BAM’s office in Singapore, leads her own investment team and manages the portfolio. Over the past decade, Agarwal has participated in campus events to attract female STEM talent to careers in finance. She has also held workshops on finance and entrepreneurship for high school and undergraduate students in Singapore, according to the firm. She is a member of the BAM Women’s Group and, outside of the company, is part of the Women Helping Women chapter in Singapore, an initiative connecting women leaders from different sectors and backgrounds. According to Hedge Fund Journal quote, Agarwal holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the National University of Singapore. She was a Stanford University Scholar for Tech Entrepreneurship.
Nandita Koshal
Nandita Koshal, Senior Portfolio Manager, Equities, Millennium Management, a global alternative investment management firm, was also featured in Hedge Fund Journal’s 50 Leading Women in Hedge Funds for 2022. Based in New York, she leads a team of professionals investment specialist in the health sector. It deploys a long/short market neutral equity strategy, focused on stock selection supported by in-depth fundamental research and rigorous valuation frameworks. Executing a consistent investment process and applying disciplined risk management has enabled the team to generate strong returns in bull and bear markets, during periods of exceptional volatility and in an environment of rapidly changing social, economic and monetary policy. Koshal believes that understanding and developing the unique strengths of each member of his team is key to long-term success in a variety of market environments. Diversity and respect for different points of view are at the heart of the team’s culture. She is a member of the steering committee of the Millennium’s Women in Investments Network (WIN). Prior to joining Millennium in 2019, Koshal worked at Citadel in a long/short healthcare team and Levin Capital in a value-driven strategy. She previously worked in healthcare equity research at Barclays. Koshal is an undergraduate engineer from the University of Delhi and holds an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. She is also a Delhi public school alumna, RK Puram.
Shikha Gupta
Shikha Gupta; portfolio manager in London in a European credit management company, astra Asset Management, was also named by Hedge Fund Journal in its annual edition of the 50 Women Leaders in Hedge Funds in November 2022. Gupta manages flagship fund Astra Specialist Credit. The fund has won several industry awards for its resilient double-digit returns and has just celebrated its 10th anniversary, a milestone for an independent private credit and alternative credit asset manager. Gupta’s investment approach is to first identify risk factors through fundamental credit and structure analysis and then generate returns, often through active engagement. She works holistically with various players in public securitizations to create value for bondholders. Its portfolio construction is designed to achieve low market correlation and positive yield convexity, achieved through low duration and by investing in assets with embedded options. His management style has led to the fund being recognized as one of the fastest recovering funds from the Covid collapse in 2020. Gupta has led militant proposals in structured credit, according to the Hedge Fund Journal. She sits on the board alongside Anish Mathur (CIO) and is Astra’s first female director. Prior to joining Astra in 2017, she worked at Deutsche Bank for 9 years, where she was responsible for managing a structured credit portfolio in excess of $10 billion in DB’s non-core business unit and formerly Winchester Capital, the main financial unit of Deutsche Bank in London. . At Deutsche, she also led an industry-wide initiative that led to a compression of US subprime CDS exposure across all major banks by tens of billions of US dollars. In addition, she managed various arcane investments including a structured finance portfolio, stranded securitization exposures, liquidity facilities and investments in other private equity funds.
Gupta strongly believes that women’s empowerment can only be fully achieved with access to financial resources and passionately supports this cause. She holds a BTech in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.
