Early in her career, when India's stock market was just taking off (in 2003-04), Aditi Kothari thought of launching an off-shore India growth fund for global investors believing in the India growth story. She went from pillar to post securing permissions for the fund. After almost a year, Merrill Lynch, where she then was, launched a fund which pulled in an initial $90 million.
Aditi was just about 27 then, but travelled the globe and did 13 cities in 11 days in countries such as Japan, the US, the Middle East, and Europe. "I had a strong belief that we should have an India Fund, and with perseverance and the backing of strong operations, we did what people thought was very tough," reminisces Kothari. In a year, the fund grew to a size of $1.5-billion fund, and is still going strong.
For Aditi, everything boils down to the key word perseverance, a trait that has stood her well and despite being the daughter of an illustrious father, Hemendra Kothari. She loves to put her heart out on projects and studied the nuts of bolts of finance at The Wharton School, and perfected her business skills through an MBA from Harvard Business School.
Aditi started her career in investment banking, joining Merrill Lynch's investment banking group in New York in 1998, primarily working on M&As in the financial institutions group. Later, Aditi she joined the fixed-income team in DSP MerillLynch and then joined DSP Blackrock in 2002, where she set up the offshore fund for foreign investors.
Aditi also believes authenticity and belief are the key traits of being a successful leader. She notes that it's not important from a leadership point to try and emulate other leaders. "If you are focused and no-nonsense person, then don't try to be very sweet," she says.
She's also passionate about philanthropy, and is on the board of Dasra, India's leading strategic philanthropy foundation. She is also a trustee of the Hemendra Kothari Foundation and Wildlife Conservative Trust, which is involved in educational activities and wildlife conservation. "Philanthropy is very important to me, and we work with various NGOS not only to help them grow but to also increase their impact."
Aditi was instrumental in launching Winvestor, a special initiative of DSP BlackRock aimed at empowering women with financial knowledge so that they can feel confident about their futures. As part of Winvestor, many interactive financial workshops have been conducted with some of India's leading financial advisors in top organizations across the nation. Thousands of underprivileged women have also been impacted through DSP BlackRock's partnerships with NGOs such as Sanchayan and Parinaam.
Aditi's father, Hemendra Kothari always advised Aditi to follow ethics above everything else, and that if anything is unethical, avoid doing it. Driven by the same passion, Aditi is also constantly striving to become a better human being every day, and attributes her ability to do just that because of a very supportive father and an equally supportive husband.
BW Reporters
Having addressed business, stock markets and personal finance for the last 18 years, Clifford Alvares has ridden the roller-coaster markets - up close and personal -successfully, traversing the downs and relishing the rises. The greater part of his journalistic ventures has gone into shaping articles about how to shape portfolios