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Find Spark research on Bloomberg, Thomson First Call, Reuters Knowledge and Factset.
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| Where do we find our alchemists? Our team is an eclectic mix of people from varied backgrounds. But they all possess that special spark in the eye and the fire to do things differently and spectacularly. With the result that our people are our most valuable assets, unrivalled for the richness of experience and thinking they bring to the table. More importantly, they share our vision and sense of ethics and values, contributing to our clients’ growth and to ours, like nothing else can.
(for details, click on the name)
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| Thyagesh Baba |
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| Executive Director and Head of Institutional Equities |
| Thyagesh, part of the founding team at Spark, heads the Institutional Equities division since March 2009. He, among all others at Spark, has the most widespread of functional experience in the Financial Services space – the potpourri that marks out a Jack of all trades, like he often jokes.
Securities Broking has been a homecoming of sorts for Thyagesh, who started life as a Research Analyst at Peregrine in the mid-90’s and even functioned as a sales trader on their India desk thereafter. Thyagesh also spent a little under 2 years with Citigroup after that, dabbling in value-investing first and then moving to handle credit in the corporate banking division. For nearly 10 years at Spark, Thyagesh took on both deal-sourcing and execution roles in investment banking, working on transactions in the Infrastructure, Financial Services and IT sectors. There were times when he even served the purpose of financial controller and advisor to small portfolio investments at Spark.
Thyagesh sees himself as a “Total Footballer” in the Spark team, and tries doing justice to his basic degree in Electrical & Electronics Engineering and his PGDM from IIM, Bangalore.
When he is not responding to mails, selling ideas and working deals, Thyagesh goes out on crazy, long road-trips. He loves reading and sings in Hindi, whenever friends get together.
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| Rajesh Parikh |
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| President of Institutional Equities |
| Rajesh heads Institutional Equity Sales and is based in Mumbai.
Prior to joining Spark in November 2009, he used to manage portfolios for HNI clients at HSBC Investdirect and JM Morgan Stanley Financial. At the start of his professional career, he was part of the Institutional Equities teams at Peregrine Capital and BNP Prime Peregrine before moving on to doing business development for Investment Research & Information Services (IRS), a content solutions start-up. Rajesh is science graduate with specialization in Mathematics and received a post-graduate diploma in management from IIM Ahmedabad in 1995.
Rajesh is a movie buff and loves to watch movies across all genres, except horror. He loves reading books on history and mythology, his latest focus being Greek mythology. Rajesh is an avid trekker and loves to take out friends and family members on trails on the hills around Mumbai. |
| V Suresh Babu |
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| Director and Executive Vice President, Institutional Equities |
| Suresh is part of the leadership team that conceptualized Spark’s entry into the institutional broking business in 2005. He currently spearheads the sales effort, handling a marquee set of investors.
Suresh has been with Spark since 2003 and is involved with all the key facets of the business: sales, research and dealing. Suresh started his career with a two-year stint at Synergy Credit Corporation at Bombay, the next three years saw him at Synergy Stock Broking; after which he joined Cholamandalam Securities, where he handled the Bombay sales desk. Subsequently he joined the institutional sales desk of IL&FS Investsmart, where he was involved in the buy-back of Britannia, apart from handling the book-building IPOs of both Balaji Telefilms and Mid-Day Multimedia. Suresh holds a B Tech degree from A C Tech (Anna University), Chennai and an MBA from BIM, Trichy.
Suresh, by his own admission, is a very accomplished ‘fielder’ (Spark lingo for having to handle one’s kids over the weekend); he also hits the gym with a vengeance, in sync with his thesis that only the fittest survive in the broking business.
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| P M Venkatesh |
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| Vice-President, Institutional Equities Sales |
| Venkat currently handles Institutional Equity Sales (Equities - Capital Markets). Earlier he was part of the Investment Banking team at Spark, handling Transaction sourcing, Client management, Negotiations and Structuring.
Venkat came to Spark in 2005, with 9 years’ experience at Godrej-GE, Infosys, Bangalore Labs and Intel, having worked across the functional areas of Procurement, ERP / Supply Chain Consulting, Business Development (India & West Americas). He holds degrees in Engineering (Mechanical) and Management (BIM – Trichy, India)
Venkat devotes his spare time to cricket and plays the KSCA Division League. He is a passionate follower of rodeo racing events in Coimbatore.
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| Nath Balakrishnan |
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| Vice-President, Institutional Equities Sales |
| Nath’s principal responsibility is to consistently transmit money-making ideas for institutional clients, both domestically and abroad. Prior to moving into the sales function, Nath spent over three years at the research desk of Spark as a lead analyst, cutting his teeth across a mélange of sectors, key among them being capital goods, engineering and logistics.
Before Spark, Nath spent three years with Voltas air conditioners and subsequently with MphasiS BFL selling software services to the Israeli market. Just prior to joining Spark, Nath spent close to 5 years as a business journalist with The Hindu Business Line.
Nath went to study engineering at the same institute (CIT, Coimbatore). He subsequently earned an MBA from the SP Jain Institute of Management and Research at Bombay. He followed it up with a journalism degree from the Asian College of Journalism in Chennai, which, apart from imparting skills in writing, also made him see the writing on the wall, because that’s where he met his wife.
Nath revels in a good pun, has an abiding passion for the English language, but still believes that the dictionary is making a colossal mistake by classifying marriage as a word when it ought to be a sentence. His athletic inclinations are largely confined to pushing his luck, jogging his memory and bending over backwards to please clients.
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| Ganeshram Jayaraman |
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| Vice-President and Head-Research |
| Ganeshram heads up the equity research desk at Spark Capital, drives overall research strategy apart from being the lead analyst for the banking and financial services sector. He has 9 years of experience and uses his background in corporate banking and network of contacts in various banks, having spent years with Standard Chartered Bank and HSBC, in doing his research on the sector. With Spark Capital’s Institutional Equities since its inception in Feb 2006, he has been the lead analyst for multiple sectors such as Infrastructure, Construction and IT/ITES apart from tracking the manufacturing, automobiles and NBFCs from a credit perspective at banks. He is a Certified Public Accountant and a commerce graduate.
Ganeshram follows cricket with the same passion as in his playing days as a junior TamilNadu state cricketer. He is also a ‘tree-hugger’ and loves to head up the hills for a vacation.
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| Vijaykumar Bupathy |
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| Asst. Vice-President - Research |
| Vijaykumar is the lead analyst tracking power utilities and infrastructure conglomerates. Vijaykumar has been an integral part of Spark’s research desk since inception and has more than three years of experience in tracking the construction and infrastructure sectors, covering more than ten stocks. Prior to joining Spark in 2007, Vijaykumar spent a year at Irevna Research Services, tracking the European Oil & gas sector. Vijaykumar is a Commerce Graduate (B.Com) as well as a Chartered Accountant.
In sport, Vijaykumar likes to play table tennis and cricket whereas he likes to listening to music and reading books.
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| Srivathsan Ramachandran |
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| Asst. Vice-President - Research |
| Srivathsan is the lead analyst for Technology and Telecom sectors at Spark Capital. He has 6 years of experience and has been covering Technology sector at Spark Capital’s Institutional Equities since Deb 2006. In his stint at Spark he has been involved in initiating research on the technology sector and is the resident Bloomberg expert. Prior to joining Spark he worked with Irevna covering Europe Software and Services. He is a Charter holder of CFA institute, Masters of finance and a commerce graduate.
An avid trekker and a biking enthusiast, Srivathsan is involved actively in community development projects in his role s a treasurer and a member of board of trustees in two non-governmental-organisations.
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| Vijayaraghavan |
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| Asst. Vice-President - Research |
| Raghavan covers the Construction, Cement and Real Estate sectors with Spark Research. He has more than 3 years of experience in sell-side equity research apart from earlier stints with in Spark Capital’s portfolio management and treasury functions. With Spark Capital’s Institutional Equities, he initiated standalone listed companies in multiple sectors under the brand mid-cap ideas at spark (MID@S) apart from being an associate analyst in Spark’s banking sector initiation. He is a Chartered Accountant and a commerce graduate (batch top rank holder).
In his spare time, Raghavan likes to play Cricket and Snooker. He enjoys spending time on teaching and community development initiatives.
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| Vijay Sarthy |
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| Asst. Vice-President - Research |
| Vijay Sarthy is the lead analyst in Spark Capital and based out of the Chennai office. He joined the firm in March, 2010 and actively covers the Automobile and Logistics sector. Vijay brings with him over 6 years of experience in the field of Equity Research with his previous assignment in JM Financial Institutional Securities Pvt Ltd, Karvy Stock Broking (Inst), Navia Markets . Sarthy is a an MBA with a graduation in commerce from Badruka College of Commerce, Hyderabad.
Sarthy loves to play Table tennis. He is an ardent lover of carnatic music.
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| Mayur Patel |
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| Asst. Vice-President - Research |
| Mayur is responsible for origination and dissemination of investment ideas in the engineering sector. He brings with him over 6 years of experience across equity research, financial management and assurance with prior stints at Irevna (a division of CRISIL), Tata Motors and A.F.Ferguson & Co (an associate of Deloitte) respectively. During his stint with Tata Motors, he was selected in the talent pool of the company for consistently outperforming on the analytical and leadership front and was also nominated for the management committee of a company managed School. He uses his equity research skills and industry experience in investment idea generation. Mayur is a qualified Chartered Accountant and a commerce graduate with all India third rank in Company Secretary, intermediate.
In his spare time, Mayur likes to play snooker and cricket.
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| Apurva Patel |
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| Asst. Vice-President - Research |
| Apurva covers the Capital Goods sector at Spark Research. Within the Capital Goods and Engineering space his focus would be on infrastructure relating companies. Before joining Spark Capital in May 2010, Apurva had spent more than 3 years in Equity Research in Prabhudas Lilladher, where he was covering the capital goods sector. Apurva is a commerce graduate and has completed his Masters in Finance from Lancaster University Management School (LUMS) and is a CFA level 3 candidate.
In his spare time Apurva plays Badminton. He is also a adventure sports enthusiast and has tried his hands at rafting and sky diving.
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