About Us

Mr. Nagesh Pinge

Independent Director

Mr. Nagesh Pinge has over 38 years of experience in Ethics, Corporate Governance, Risk Management & Internal Audit.

Nagesh retired from Tata Motors in November 2016 as “Chief-Internal Audit, Risk Management & Ethics”. Prior to that he was Chief Internal Audit of Reliance Retail Ltd. & JSW Group. He has also worked for ICICI Bank & its Group Companies in Risk Management (Chief Risk Officer), Regulatory Compliance and Internal Audit (Group Head-Internal Audit).

Nagesh is the Past President of the Institute of Internal Auditors, India. He is a recipient of “ACIIA” Award given by “Asian Confederation of Institutes of Internal Audit” for “Outstanding Contribution in Internal Audit” for the year 2017. He is also a recipient of “ICAI” Award given by the Institute of Chartered Accountant of India for the year 2014.

Nagesh is a Regular Faculty at “Masterclass for Directors” being conducted by the Institute of Directors in India. He has authored a technical guidance note on “Risk based Audit for Banks” being published by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. He is an Independent Director on many companies i.e. Goa Carbon, Arvind Fashions, MCX Clearing Corporation, Aditya Birla Sun Life Insurance, Automobile Corporation of Goa, Inventia Healthcare, Hero Housing Finance & Utkarsh Small Finance Bank.

Nagesh is a Chartered Accountant and Law Graduate from India. He has also completed Executive Education Program from The Stephen M Ross School of Business of the University of Michigan, USA.

Mr. Sharadchandra Abhyankar

Independent Director

Mr. Sharad comes with an experience of more than 32 in years corporate laws, securities laws, anti-trust laws, telecom regulations, constitutional litigation and international commercial arbitrations.

Sharad is the Partner of Khaitan & Co, Advocates & Solicitors Mumbai. He advises Indian and international clients on strategic M&As, private equity investments and exits, capital markets transactions, financing transactions, domestic and cross-border foreign collaborations and joint ventures, foreign exchange and securities law related matters.

Sharad holds a B.A. L.L.B. L.L.M. degree (Commercial Laws) from Mumbai University, Solicitor (The Bombay Incorporated Law Society), Patent & Trademarks Attorney, and IICA certified Mediator.

Mr. Ajith Punnakkal

Director

Mr. Ajith Punnakkal has 27 years of experience in investment operations, fund accounting, risk management, regulatory reporting, accounts and client servicing. Prior to joining White Oak Capital, he has worked with Edelweiss Financial Services as Vice President at their Prime Brokerage, Securities and Fund Services business advising Foreign Portfolio Investors on accessing Indian capital markets and on-boarding related matters.

Before that, he was working with IIFL Capital (Singapore), a regulated investment manager under the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), as the head of operations and client services at their Singapore office. Earlier, he has handled various assignments based out of Dubai and Mauritius with Kotak Mahindra group for their India bound asset management business.

Ajith is a graduate in commerce from the University of Madras.

Mr. Ramesh Mantri

Chief Investment Officer

Ramesh has 19 years of experience in investng and financial analysis across sectors.

Ramesh had founded Ashoka Capital Advisers that advised a fund and family offices on equity investment in South Asia.

Earlier, he was part of the two-member team which invested in South Asia in equity and debt for Alden Global Capital, a US based hedge fund for over 7 years.

Prior to this, he was an analyst at CRISIL (majority owned by Standard and Poor’s), India’s leading ratng agency and covered the financial sector.

Ramesh is a CFA charter holder, MBA from Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi and a Chartered Accountant.

Mr. Bhalchandra Joshi

Chief Operations Officer

Bhalchandra has over 29 years of experience in Retail Banking and Asset Management industry. Prior to WhiteOak Capital Asset Managment Limited, he served as Chief – Operations Excellence and Service Delivery for 11 years with Nippon Life India AMC (erstwhile Reliance Nippon AMC) where he was responsible for building strong customer centric processes along with innovations. He has previously worked with brands like ICICI Bank, Standard Chartered and CitiBank.

Bhalchandra has diverse experience of spear heading functions like Customer Service, Digital Design, Registrar and Transfer Agency operations, Branch Operations, Custody, Fund Accounting across Mutual Funds, PMS and AIF offerings. As a banker, he pioneered new multiple segments of revenue generation by embedding various third-party products into core banking operations.

He has been an Active Board Member of MF Utilities Pvt Ltd, leading market infrastructure (on-line platform) company for Indian Mutual Funds. He has been instrumental in shaping its architecture and designing in collaboration with leading Fintech partner. He has also been a key member of the Mutual Fund industry body of India, AMFI (Association of Mutual Funds of India) for 10 years till Feb 2020.

Bhalchandra holds a Masters’ in Business Administration from Prin L.N. Welingkar Institute and Bachelor of Science (Chemistry) degree from D.G Ruparel College. He is a CFP from FPSB India & holds CFA - Claritas Investment Certificate.

Mr. Saurabh Shah

Chief Financial Officer

Prior to joining WhiteOak Capital Asset Managment Limited, Saurabh spent 10 years with JP Morgan – Global Real Assets business as Chief Financial Officer responsible for fund and property level reporting and management of their India Real Estate funds. The role encompassed fund accounting, cash management, investment/divestment structuring, investor and internal reporting’s, valuations, tax, audits, compliance, etc.

Prior to joining JP Morgan, Saurabh was a director with BSR & Associates, a full member firm of KPMG. He has worked with KPMG for more than 10 years in their audit discipline.

Saurabh was part of the financial services practice with KPMG and has diverse experience across various constituents of the financial services sector including banks, NBFCs, brokerage houses, private equity/venture capital funds, BPOs/KPOs, investment banks etc.

Saurabh is a Chartered Accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI).

Mr. Prateek Pant

Chief Business Officer

Prateek is responsible for driving the overall business objectives through multiple distribution channels, innovative marketing strategies including digital and effective product architecture.

Prior to White oak, Prateek was the Head of Products and Solutions at Sanctum Wealth Management and was also a part of the Founding Management Team. In his role he managed the delivery of client solutions which included investments, wealth planning and real estate services.

Prateek has over 25 years of experience in Banking and Financial Services in India and the Middle East. Prior to Sanctum Wealth Management he worked with RBS Group, Franklin Templeton, Bank of America, ABN Amro Bank, HSBC and Commercial Bank of Qatar in the domains of Branch Banking, Credit Cards, Asset and Wealth Management.

Prateek holds a Bachelor's degree in Engineering, with a specialisation in Chemical Engineering, from the University of Mumbai. He has also obtained an MMS degree from the Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies, with a specialisation in Finance.

Mr. Suren Kochhar

Head Business Strategy

Suren has over 26 years of experience in the Financial Services Industry with more than 22 years in the Asset Management.

Suren has led multiple leadership roles and carries a wide exposure in Sales & Distribution, Digital, Products, Marketing & Communication.

Suren has been associated with Kotak Mahindra Asset Management, Fortis Investment Management (erstwhile ABN AMRO Asset Management and Now BNP Paribas Asset Management), Principal Pnb Asset Management, Indiabulls Asset Management & YES Asset Management.

At WhiteOak Capital Asset Management Limited, Suren leads the Business Strategy function.

Mr. Piyush Baranwal

Senior Fund Manager (Fixed Income)

Piyush brings with him approximately 13 years of experience in fixed income fund management function. Prior to joining WhiteOak Capital Asset Managment Limited, he was last working as Head-Fixed Income at BOI AXA Investment Managers. Earlier, he was a portfolio manager at Morgan Stanley Investment Management after having started his career at Principal PNB AMC.

Piyush has completed his B.E. in Electronics & Communication from MIT Manipal and post graduate diploma in business management from SPJIMR Mumbai with specialization in finance.

He has also completed the CFA certification course conducted by the CFA Institute, USA.

Mr. Deepak Shivathaya

Head Information Technology

Mr. Deepak Shivathaya has over 26 years of experience in the field of Information Technology (IT) with the last 18 years being in Insurance and Asset Management companies. He was part of the Religare Aegon Asset Management India (now Invesco Asset Management India) start-up team, where as Head of Technology & Change Management function was responsible for laying down company-wide systems, processes and Information Security Policies. He has expertise in various areas of IT and has worked in various organization of repute like Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE), ING Life, HDFC Life, Allianz Life, Unilever, GEBBS and Systems Plus. Deepak holds a Commerce degree and an Honours in Systems Management.

Ms. Shobha Ramchandani

Chief Risk Officer

Shobha has over 18 years of experience in the Financial Services Industry. She has been instrumental in setting up operations and processes at WhiteOak Capital Asset Management Limited. Prior to WhiteOak Capital AMC, Shobha has worked for IDFC Asset Management as Sr V P – Operations and was also associated with Shinsei Asset Management, HSBC Bank and JM Financial Asset Management. She has successfully handled various roles within the gamut of mutual fund operations.

Shobha is a qualified Chartered Accountant and FRM.

Ms.Vasudha Shah

Head of Investor Services

Ms. Vasudha Shah comes with an experience of over 17 years. She is an accomplished Service and Operations professional with experience in setting up and successfully leading and managing the Investor Servicing and Registrar and Transfer Agent(RTA) Operations.

In her career spanning, she has worked pre-dominantly in the Mutual Funds industry. Her mutual fund journey began in the year 2003, when she joined Fidelity International followed by leading the Customer Service Team of Fidelity Fund Management Private Limited (Asset Management business in India). Prior to WhiteOak Capital Asset Managment Limited, she has worked for DHFL Pramerica Asset Managers Pvt Ltd, where she was heading the Investor Servicing Function and RTA Operations.

Vasudha holds a Master’s Diploma in Business Administration from Symbiosis Center for Distance Learning, Pune and is a Commerce graduate from Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, New Delhi.

Mr.Harit Gautam

Head - Digital

Harit heads the Digital proposition at WhiteOak Capital Asset Management Limited and is responsible for Digital - strategy, business, platforms and marketing.

He brings in over 20 years of experience in the digital space within the BFSI industry. He has set up digital platforms in multiple organizations and has subsequently monetised them for business generation.

In his last stint, Harit was the Business Head for Mutual Funds at Bajaj Finance, where he built a digital only Mutual Fund proposition from scratch. He has also served as Digital Head Retail at NipponLife AMC and has also lead digital set ups at IIFL Securities, HSBC Bank and ICICI Bank.

Harit is a B.Tech in Computers and has also completed an Advanced Diploma in Software Engineering (Hons)

Mr.Prannav Shah

Head - Compliance, Legal and Secretarial

Prannav brings with him over 15 years of experience in the Compliance function of Mutual Fund industry. In his last assignment he was heading Compliance at Edelweiss Asset Management Limited. He was responsible for the managing overall Compliance activities of Mutual Funds, PMS and AIF business of the AMC.

Prior to joining Edelweiss, he was associated with organizations like Aditya Birla Sun Life AMC Limited, Invesco AMC and ICICI Prudential Asset Management.

He is a Company Secretary from ICSI with Diploma in Enterprise Risk Management.

Mr.Vaibhav Chugh

Head - Retail Sales

Prior to joining WhiteOak Capital Asset Managment Limited, Vaibhav worked with Aditya Birla SL AMC for 14 years and served in various roles across North, South and West India. In his last assignment, he was the Zonal head of West zone for all the distribution channels and was also managing HNI sales for the country.

Vaibhav has over 20 years of experience in retail sales and distribution and has worked with organisations like ICICI Prudential AMC, IDBI Principal AMC and Franklin Templeton (erstwhile Kothari Pioneer Mutual Funds).

Vaibhav holds a Bachelor degree from Punjab University and a PGDM from IMT- Ghaziabad. He has also done a LDP- Finance for Executives from IIM- Bengaluru.

Vaibhav is responsible for driving retail sales for the organisation along with managing the retail distribution partnerships across India.