Madhav Mahendra        

Imperial College Business School

“Finance professional with tenacity for questioning the status quo and a love for DC comics.”

Hometown: Calcutta, India

Fun Fact About Yourself: A truly peripatetic upbringing, I have lived in 11 different cities across The United Kingdom and India. I also raced motorbikes when I was 18 and once on a whim rode for 300 miles along the south-west coast of India.

Undergraduate School and Major: MSc Finance & Management, University of St. Andrews

Most Recent Employer and Job Title: Senior Associate, Darashaw & Co. – India’s Largest Asset Manager for Retirement Funds

Aside from your classmates, what was the key part of Imperial’s MBA programming that led you to choose this business school? Why was it so important to you? Imperial College is at the epicenter of innovation with a deep-rooted entrepreneurial spirit. The strong focus on science and technology has spurred countless startups and I am fascinated by their valuational, strategic, and regulatory considerations owing to my keen interest in the world of private equity and venture capital. The Imperial MBA goes beyond just academic upskilling, it presents me with the opportunity to work and interact with entrepreneurial leaders of the future and gain in-house knowledge of the drivers behind multimillion dollar buyouts and funding.

What club or extracurricular activity excites you most at this school? I am honoured to have been appointed the President of the Finance Club at Imperial College Business School for 2020-21. Driving the framework and objectives for one of the largest clubs in the Business School is an extremely exciting prospect. The Finance Club’s mission is to act as a bridge between the academic and professional world, giving students access to first-hand insights from industry experts. I want to ensure that the members of the club are given access to quality networking opportunities considering the limited availability of in-person interaction with employers right now. I am currently in the process of assembling a highly motivated committee that believes in adding value for each and every member.

What makes London such a great place to earn an MBA? How have you taken advantage of London to further your business education? Imperial College enjoys a distinct location advantage over many other schools. There could not be a better place to pursue an MBA than London – the world’s premier centre for finance. London houses some of the largest investment banks and PE/VC players globally, and is buzzing with startup activity. The UK alone accounts for 40% of Europe’s total VC investments!

Perhaps the most significant testimony of London’s locational advantage is the diverse network of colleagues working across leading industries, whom I have already had the opportunity to meet despite living in Mumbai for the last four years.

Describe your biggest accomplishment in your career so far:

From a purely quantifiable perspective, my most notable accomplishment was acquiring a £50 million mandate six months into my role as an analyst. Although I would go on to acquire larger accounts and add over £250 million to the firm’s AUM, there is something oddly satisfying about my first mandate. It was possibly the fact that mandates of this magnitude were usually associated with senior management and I was only a few months into my first job.

What led you to pursue an MBA at this point in your career? I came back to India after completing my MSc at the University of St. Andrews in 2016. I took the opportunity to learn as much as I could working in the domestic bond markets, a vast but underdeveloped market that still functions on OTC trades. During my four years at Darashaw I had the opportunity to learn from exceptional mentors and leaders during one of the most fascinating yet challenging periods for India’s financial markets.

However, I wished to expand my technical toolkit and explore more of the finance world beyond the constraints of the domestic debt-markets. Also, having spent a large part of my childhood and higher education years in the UK, I always felt a strong sense of community and aspired to return to the UK. Driven by my desire to grow as a professional and to go back to my roots, an MBA at Imperial College Business School was the ideal platform for me to upskill and explore new challenges in a foreign job market.

What was your defining moment and how did it prepare you for business school? I vividly recall the day I wrote an elaborate email to my family and friends, mentioning my desire to quit my aeronautical engineering degree despite dedicating two years to it and relocate to the UK. At the time I heard a lot of “winners never quit and quitters never win” but I knew my heart was not in the engineering world. I had always possessed high levels of curiosity about everything and anything under the sun and engineering had left me feeling quite restricted. I went on to pursue a management degree and briefly harbored dreams of playing professional cricket (unsuccessfully), though I take solace in being able to captain the Middlesex University cricket team rather successfully.

Looking back, my decision has been pivotal in shaping my academic, professional and personal journey. It is never too late to reset in order to truly find your calling – for me it was finance. The MBA presents me yet another opportunity to expand my horizons and further enrich my experiences.

DON’T MISS: MEET IMPERIAL COLLEGE’S MBA CLASS OF 2021