FOUNDER
Gautam has been associated with all aspects of the firm’s development since its founding.
An innovator, Gautam has the rare distinction of structuring India’s first participatory note in 1993, creating the world’s first depositary receipt index, Skindia GDR Index, in 1994, co-developing India’s most popular equity benchmark, Nifty 50 in 1995, designing a US ETF structure – SuGaR in 1999, the Survey of Depositary Banks in 2000, pioneering the use of insurance for credit enhancement in 2005, constructing the Instanex Mumbai Factor Rate in 2007, the Instanex FII Index and other owner indexes in 2009, followed by SWIPE - an algo-based index system using credit card data - in 2011, and developing a disruptive fintech service - ABC Invest - in 2014. He also has a steady track record close to three decades in Indian equity investing, using largely market-neutral strategies. At present, he is CEO of the firm and also responsible for Instanex's investment banking division.
Gautam began his career in commercial banking in 1988 with an internship with Citicorp in Chicago and, after completing his MIM degree at Thunderbird, worked for Citibank’s Indian operations. During his MBA at the Wharton School, he did internships in 1991 and 1992 with the Walt Disney Company in Burbank, California, and then went on to start the operations of Skindia Finance in Mumbai in 1992. In 1996, Gautam moved to New York where he was initially head of Indian and South Asian equities for Peregrine Brokerage and then for HSBC Securities. In 1999, he founded Instanex in New York and continued his entrepreneurial journey, moving back to Mumbai in 2001. He continued to provide services to his US clients, moving back to New York between 2010 and 2013.
Gautam graduated with an MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania in 1992, completed his Master of International Management Degree from Thunderbird, Arizona in 1988, and has a Bachelor of Commerce Degree, graduating from Sydenham College in Mumbai, India in 1987. He lives in Mumbai, India with his wife and daughter.