S Viswanatha Prasad – Managing Director Prasad is the founder of Caspian Advisors and co-founder of The Bellwether Microfinance Fund.

Prasad has over 20 years of experience in the mainstream financial sector, of which the last 8 years have been spent in microfinance.   Prior to founding Bellwether, Prasad held the positions of CFO, COO and eventually CEO of Bhartiya Samruddhi Finance limited, the flagship company in the BASIX group, one of the largest microfinance networks in India. BASIX was the first microfinance institution in India to raise external equity, as well as the first in Asia to securitize its microfinance portfolio.  Before entering the world of microfinance, Prasad was a Vice President in the Corporate Finance and Asset Financing Divisions of KARVY Consultants. He also held the position of Vice President of Project Finance for the TVS Group. Reputed to be a leader in Indian microfinance, Prasad served as a member of a high-level task force constituted by the Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of India to deliberate on the funding issues of microfinance institutions and he has done extensive policy work with government agencies and regulators.  Prasad also acts as a Managing Partner at Grassroots Capital. Prasad has a Master’s degree in management studies from Birla Institute of Technology and Science in Pilani, India.

Mona Kachhwaha - Investment Director Mona joined Caspian in 2007 and  focuses on investment advisory activities related to the India Financial Inclusion Fund.

Mona has has over 15 years of financial industry experience and prior to joining Caspian, Mona worked with the Global Consumer Group of Citibank India. While at Citibank, she worked in a range of functions including Operations, Sales, Product Development, Credit Risk Management and Business Management. During her tenure she held various senior positions, including the business head of the Microfinance Business and head of the credit risk function (Policy & Credit Administration) for the Mortgage Business.   In 2005, Mona assumed responsibility for setting up and heading Citibank's microfinance business in India. Some of her key responsibilities as the microfinance business head included creating business alliances and partnerships with microfinance institutions of significant size and scope, developing relationships with industry bodies, funding agencies, networks and other relevant entities, as well as interfacing with regulators and government bodies on behalf of Citibank. She was also responsible for launching one of India’s first micro-savings products, named "Citibank Pragati" and introduced the use of custom designed biometric-enabled, voice-guided ATM machines for clients.  Mona also acts as an Investment Partner at Grassroots Capital. Mona holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management from Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI), Jamshedpur and graduated in Mathematics from Delhi University.

B.V. Narasimham - Investment Director Ravi joined Caspian in October 2005 is currently focused on setting up a microfinance investment fund for Southeast Asia.

Prior to this, he was primarily focused on investment management and advisory activities for the Bellwether Microfinance Fund.  As part of the founding team of BASIX, one of India’s largest and innovative MFIs, Ravi has a unique combination of experience in development research and Microfinance. Prior to the inception of BASIX, Ravi was part of the team headed by Mr. Vijay Mahajan that conducted several important studies including the Study of Rural Non-Farm Sector in India. Later in the process of grounding BASIX operations, Ravi was instrumental in setting-up the first four Units of BASIX.  After ten years with BASIX, Ravi spent last three years working in CARE India in the Credit and Savings Project as Manager Research & Innovations and later as Microfinance Technical Specialist in the Sustainable Tribal Empowerment Project. One of the significant innovations attributed to Ravi was the Money Remittance System for Migrant workers from Orissa based in Gujarat. His vast operating experience in Microfinance including his work with NGOs practicing Microfinance in tribal areas is an asset to the team.  Ravi holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management from Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar.

Vishal Bharat – Investment Director Vishal joined Caspian in 2009 and is primarily focused on portfolio management and leading efforts in co-creating value in our investee companies, many of whom are entering a high growth phase.

Vishal has over 14 years of corporate banking experience in multinational banks in three continents.  Most recently, he was with JP Morgan Chase’s commercial bank for 9 years, relocating from Dallas, TX to Mumbai, India to launch the Commercial Bank in India. Vishal started with Citibank as an FX Trader followed by a stint as the Operations Manager in the Global Transactions Group. After that, Vishal launched the Global Cash Management Services for Standard Chartered Bank in India.    Vishal has had an association with rural development and microfinance for 20 years. He worked with a rural cooperative bank in rural Rajasthan during his high school days and more recently he started, managed and eventually sold a “Fair Trade” business in Dallas, TX.    Vishal holds a Master of International Management Degree from Thunderbird, The Garvin School of International Management, Glendale AZ; Master of Business Administration from University of Delhi, India and Bachelor of Technology (Mechanical Engineering) from Banaras Hindu University, India.

Amitabh Brar – Investment Director Amit Brar joined the team in May 2010 and is responsible for the microfinance investment fund targeted at South East Asia.

Amit has over ten years of experience including eight years in microfinance operations management and social performance assessment. Recently, he was a consultant for Shorebank International where he led business planning and market research for a mobile banking start up in Bangladesh and an impact study for a microfinance organization in Pakistan. From 2006-2008 Amit was the Director of Operations of MISFA – a US$200 Million microfinance investment fund in Afghanistan which invested in 15 different microfinance start-ups. At MISFA, Amit gained experience in portfolio management, restructuring organizations as well as conducting impact assessments. Earlier, Amit was the Team Leader at EDA Rural Systems, India where he was the core member of Social Rating Team. He has visited over 50 MFIs for social performance assessment across South Asia. He started his career in microfinance in 2002 as a Research Assistant at CGAP. Amit holds a Master of Finance from the London Business School; a Master of Public Policy from the University of Maryland, USA); a Master of Science in Engineering from the University of Cincinnati, Ohio, and a Bachelor of Technology from IT-BHU in India.

R Venkatram Reddy – Investment Principal Venkat joined Caspian in July 2007 and focuses on building relationships and managing portfolio companies by providing strategic inputs and also leads the Social Performance Reporting Initiative.

Venkat  has over 14 years of experience in the field and from July 2005 till June 2007, Venkat worked with ICICI Bank  initially as a Relationship Manager, Micro Finance, and was later  promoted as Chief manager,  Micro Finance,  during which time he was responsible for managing the Bank’s micro credit assets (amounting to Rs 650 Corers) in Andhra Pradesh, comprising 30 MFI clients and one million ultimate customers, spread across 20,000 villages. He was also responsible for the rural insurance business (Life & General Insurance) of the Bank covering over 50,000 retail customers, and the implementation of the business correspondent model of the Bank. Between Nov 1999 and June 2005, Venkat worked with BASIX, one of India’s premier microfinance institutions. Venkat started as a Field Executive, was promoted as Unit Head (where he is credited with setting up one of BASIX’s best branches/units at Nirmal in terms of portfolio quality and efficiency) and finally served as an Area Manager from July 2004 to June 2005.  Venkat holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Agricultural Science from the Andhra Pradesh Agriculture University at Rajendra Nagar, Hyderabad (1995).

Shilpa Sudhakar – Investment Principal Shilpa was part of Caspian’s founding team and is part of the investment team and also supervises legal affairs as well as funds under management.

Her legal as well as microfinance experience has enabled Caspian to facilitate the transformation of NGO-MFIs in to appropriate legal structures. Shilpa was also instrumental in the acquisition of existing non-banking financial companies to serve as legal vehicles for several of the Caspian Funds’ investees.   Shilpa has over six years of experience in the microfinance sector.  Prior to joining Bellwether, Shilpa spent two years with BASIX - a pioneering microfinance institution - one of the first regulated MFIs in India. At BASIX, she was responsible for managing the legal affairs of the BASIX Group, which comprised a Non Banking Financial Company, a not-for-profit Company, a Local Area Bank and a private holding company.  Shilpa graduated in Commerce from Osmania University (Hyderabad). She holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Law from the University College of Law, Hyderabad. Shilpa is also a Member of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India, New Delhi.

P.B. Lakshmikant – Investment Services Manager Lakshmikant joined Caspian in July 2008 and handles all middle office operations including reporting to Investors and regulators.

He also manages relationships with Investees and Administrators. Lakshmikant oversees the finance and accounting functions at Caspian.  Before joining Caspian, Lakshmikant worked in Cognizant Technology Solutions as an Associate Consultant in the domain competency group under the Cards & Payments vertical managing the card-decisioning system of a US based Fortune 500 financial services giant. Prior to Cognizant, he worked with S&S Technologies as an Associate Consultant and managed diverse projects like e-Governance, commercial and operational due diligence for M&A and PE transactions, User Acceptance Testing for new software products from functional perspectives. He was seconded to Dubai to start the firm’s operations in the middle-east. Prior to Cognizant, he spent four years with Citigroup India as a Process executive for Consumer Asset Operations spanning personal loans, mortgage loans, SME loans and retail banking operations.  Lakshmikant holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai, Masters in Commerce from University of Madras and Bachelors in Corporate Secretaryship from University of Madras.

Shailaja Shastri – Legal & Compliance Associate Shailaja joined Caspian in May 2009 and manages all the fund manager's and funds' legal requirements.

Shailaja has around ten years of experience as a legal professional.  Prior to joining Caspian, Shailaja worked as a legal associate with Amicus and QuisLex Legal Services Pvt. Ltd.  Shailaja is also a Chartered Arbitrator, empanelled with the International Council of Alternate Dispute Resolution.   She has a B.A from the University of Madras, Tamil Nadu, a Bachelor’s degree in Law (LLB) from the University of Osmania, Andhra Pradesh, a post graduate diploma (PG Dip) in Alternate Dispute Resolution from the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR) and an LLM in International Law from Oxford Brookes, Oxford, U.K

Subhodeep Mukhopadhyay – Investor Services Associate Subhodeep joined Caspian in May 2010 and is involved in middle office operations, specifically responsible for reporting to investors, as well as providing analytical support to the investment team.

Subhodeep has around 5 years of experience as a systems analyst and software designer in information technology firms. Before joining Caspian, Subhodeep worked in Cognizant Technology Solutions and was involved in various aspects of business process design, optimisation, and systems development for US and Swiss financial services clients. Prior to that, he has also worked in Wipro and Accenture.   Subhodeep holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Management from Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai and a Bachelors in Engineering in Computer Science from University of Kalyani, West Bengal.

B Mohini Devi – Executive Assistant Mohini joined Caspian in July 2006 and manages all administrative and secretarial work.

She has over 11 years experience in the areas of managing administrative and secretarial activities. Mohini also doubles up as Executive Assistant to Prasad. Prior to joining Caspian, Mohini worked in secretarial capacity with educational institutions like Bhavans Vivekananda Degree College, Hyderabad and Bhega's High School. She had a brief stint with ADP, Hyderabad as a Data Analyst for Global Proxy Services Division.  Mohini holds a Bachelors (B.Sc) degree in Mathematics from Nagarjuna University and an Advanced Degree in Software Technology from ECIT, Hyderabad.