IIT Madras Foundation Endowment-Investment Policy

Endowment
- Governance & Control
- Investment Policy
- Investment Philosophy

Investment Policy

The Investment Policy governing the management of the Endowment funds has been approved by the Board of Directors, and follows applicable laws of California, IRS rules and the best practices as per UPMIFA guidelines. A copy of the approved Investment Policy Statement is available here. Currently, most of the funds are invested in passive mutual funds or ETFs.

Investment Committee

Kumar Doraiswami

Shankar Nagarajan

Vasanth Victor

Kumar Doraiswami

BTME 1983

Kumar brings over twenty five years of financial services experience spread across venture capital, hedge funds, derivatives, risk management and quantitative finance. He co-founded and serves on the investment committee of Tribeca Early Stage Partners, New York, where he oversees a portfolio of early stage tech and fintech investments.

Kumar helped conceptualize, fund and launch the start-up TrueEX, which is a market leader in digital trading and pre/post-processing of cleared interest rate derivatives. His prior experience includes derivatives research at Salomon Brothers; followed by sales & trading as well as strategic, executive management experience at Bankers Trust/Deutsche Bank and Natixis Capital Markets.

Away from finance, Kumar enjoys studying and collecting Indian contemporary art and sculptural antiquities. He has a BTME from IIT Madras; MS (Mechanical & Aerospace Science) from University of Rochester; and an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Shankar Nagarajan

BTME 1980

Nag brings over 30 years of experience in finance, first in academia and then in management consulting, and asset management – across a broad range of alternative asset classes and investment strategies. For the past thirteen years, he has been the Head of Risk Management and an Investment Committee member at Prisma, a KKR-owned alternative asset manager. Previously, he was a partner at Risk Capital, a boutique risk advisory firm for corporate clients. Earlier, he had senior roles at Deloitte and Bankers Trust, advising clients on strategic and tactical risk management. In his advisory career, Nag had been a senior member of teams that won Euromoney’s Best Risk Advisor Award for four years.

In his previous career, Nag was a tenured Associate Professor of finance at McGill University, Montreal, as well as a Visiting Professor of Economics and Finance at Columbia Business School and Stern School of Business, New York University. He has published in leading economics and finance journals and served as a consultant to the Federal Reserve and People’s Bank of China.

Nag’s interests lie in rural development, and women’s/children’s education/welfare. He has a BTME from IIT Madras, as well as an MS. and a PhD from Northwestern University.

Vasanth Victor

BTME 1982

Vasanth is a Managing Director and head of GIC business at Natixis Capital Markets, New York. During his 20 years at Natixis and the 11 years at Salomon Brothers earlier, he has had extensive trading experience in fixed income and equity markets in New York, Tokyo, London and Hong Kong.

At various times in his career, Vasanth has been responsible for businesses offering derivatives to fixed income, equity and structured products users. He was a key member of the workout group that managed the large runoff portfolio at Natixis after the financial crisis and has specialized knowledge of residential and commercial mortgage products in Structured Finance.

Vasanth is a member of the Board of Directors of the General Council of Finance and Administration of the United Methodist Church and is also the President of the United Methodist Stewardship Foundation of the Greater NJ Annual Conference. His interests lie in affordable housing and in mentoring young people.

Vasanth is a CFA charter holder and has a BTME from IIT Madras; MS (Industrial Engineering – Information Systems) from University of Wisconsin, Madison; and an MBA from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.