APREA India Annual Conference: India Next

Sigrid is the Chief Executive Officer of Asia Pacific Real Assets Association (APREA). Based in Singapore, she is responsible for overseeing the strategic direction, initiatives and operations of the association across Asia Pacific. Under her leadership, APREA repositioned to an industry trade group focusing on real estate and infrastructure.

Sigrid joined APREA’s executive team in January 2019.

Prior to APREA, she served as Managing Director of Asia Pacific Research and Advisory Services of Cushman & Wakefield (C&W) from 2010 through 2018, where she was responsible for research, thought leadership, strategy formulation and client management.  Before relocating to Singapore, she was based in Washington, D.C. and led C&W’s U.S. research group in the Mid-Atlantic region, overseeing all aspects of market research activities in the Washington, DC; Virginia; Suburban Maryland, Baltimore; and Philadelphia areas. Prior to joining C&W, Sigrid served as a Senior Economist for the National Association of Realtors (NAR). In that position, she developed NAR’s office, warehouse, retail, multi-family housing, and international research programs.

A recognized expert in global economic, public policy and real estate issues, Sigrid is a frequent speaker at industry events.  Her commentary on commercial and residential real estate markets is also regularly featured in a wide array of global publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Bloomberg, New York Times and Reuters. Additionally, she has made several television appearances on financial networks and radio such as CNBC, Bloomberg, CNN, National Public Radio and Channel News Asia.

Sigrid holds a Master of Business Administration from Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management and a Master’s degree in Economics from Pennsylvania State University. She is a member of several civic groups including the Rotary Club of Raffles City in Singapore, where she has served in various leadership positions, and serves in the Executive Committee of the Crohn’s & Colitis Society of Singapore.

Neel, an alumnus of Harvard Business School and a Masters' in Finance and Economics with a Degree in Law has about 26 years of rich business experience.

Neel heads the core real estate business and is now instrumental in setting up I.T. office parks and residential townships. He is on the Board of Chalet Hotels, hospitality division of the group, which manages seven 5‐star properties across India. He has successfully set up the brand 'Inorbit Malls' at pan India basis and Inorbit is now among the top 3 mall companies in the country.

Neel is also on the Board of 'Shoppers Stop', the country's prestigious department store chain.

He was selected as the Top 40 under 40 by Economic Times.

He chairs some of the important committees that shape key industry developments, like:

• APREA, Chairman, India Chapter.
• NAREDCO‐President, West.
• Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Chairman ‐ National Committee on Real Estate and Housing.
• Advisory Board Member, SCAI (Shopping Centres Association of India)

He has been appointed by the Government of India to study and suggest changes to the Special Economic Zone policy.

He was invited by the Honourable Prime Minister of India as a member of 'Champions of Change'.

Ritwik Bhattacharjee is the Chief Investment Officer at Embassy REIT. Ritwik was a member of the IPO team that listed Embassy REIT on the Indian stock exchanges in April 2019. Prior to Joining Embassy REIT, Ritwik managed a family office in India overseeing public and private investments. Ritwik spent 12 years as an investment banker at global banks, including Nomura, Citi, UBS and JPMorgan. Ritwik has worked on numerous REIT and real estate capital markets and advisory transactions in the United States and across Asia.

Ritwik holds a bachelor’s of arts degree in economics from Middlebury College, a master’s degree in business administration from the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration, Dartmouth College, and a master of arts degree in law and diplomacy from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University.

Amit joined Hines in 2015 and is the Country Head for Hines in India. He is responsible for development, acquisition, and asset management of real estate across the country. Hines has offices in 5 cities in India - in Gurgaon, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, and Ahmedabad, and currently focused on office and residential projects. Amit has a track record of starting and scaling-up businesses as an intrapreneur. He started IndiaReit / Piramal Fund Management’s business in North India in 2010. He started GE Real Estate’s operations in Singapore in 2006 and scaled them across Southeast Asia. Amit began his career with Marakon, where he was based in Singapore and was part of teams that advised the C-suite of large corporations across 9 countries in the Asia Pacific region.

Kranti Mohan has over 15 years of experience in advising on Indian securities laws. He has advised
on almost the entire spectrum of capital markets transactions, including IPOs, QIPs, rights offerings,
overseas listings (including through business trust route), buybacks, and block/ bulk trades on the
stock exchanges. Over the last few years, he has also extensively advised on establishing and listing
business trusts, infrastructure investment trusts, real estate investment trusts and yieldcos.

Kranti is also a member of the Hybrid Securities Advisory Committee constituted by SEBI and a
member of APREA’s India Infra and InvITs Committee.

He was an active participant in the Firm’s initiatives related to the consultation process on various
aspects of Invits and REITs and collaborated with few stakeholders in making representations to
various governmental/ regulatory authorities, including the Prime Minister’s Office, Ministry of
Finance, Central Board of Direct Taxes, the Reserve Bank of India and SEBI.

In the past, Kranti was also a member of the committee constituted by SEBI for streamlining
disclosure standards for equity offerings and the working group on evaluating REITs of CII.

• Shailendra heads Capital Markets for Brookfield Asset Management (BAM) and is responsible for equity anddebt fund raising for BAM India real estate portfolio
• Shailendra previously led real estate sector coverage for Morgan Stanley India Investment Banking & KotakInvestment Banking and has over 2 decades of experience across real estate investment banking, corporate finance and capital markets
• In his investment banking roles, Shailendra played a key role in establishing REIT as an asset class in India and has led equity fund raising for all Indian REITs including Brookfield India REIT, Embassy REIT and Mindspace REIT
• Shailendra has been extensively involved with equity fund raising, mergers & acquisitions and advisory roles in the Indian real estate sector with leading players including DLF, Godrej Properties, Phoenix Mills, Brigade Enterprises, Sunteck Realty and India REITs
• He has strong relationships with public and private real estate investors as well as with Indian & foreign lenders

Mr. Vinod Rohira is the Chief Executive Officer of Mindspace Business Parks REIT. Equipped with an MBA from Booth School of Business, Chicago, and a law degree from the Mumbai University, Vinod began his career with the K Raheja Corp, over two decades ago. He has during his tenure, pioneered the concept of landmark business districts, premium residential and retail complexes, which have become the reference points in Indian real estate. Vinod is a key member of the leadership team that has built the K Raheja Corp into one of the most respected and leading names in Indian real estate.

Having led the development of Grade A commercial real estate across India for the Group and listing Mindspace Business Parks REIT on the Indian Stock Exchanges; his current focus is on driving the commercial business’ strategic operations, with a particular emphasis on stakeholders’ management and business development.

Somy is the Managing Director, India for Valuation and Advisory Services and Co-head for Capital Markets. He is involved in advising clients on real estate transactions while working with Landlords, Developers, Individual & Institutional investors. The services range from strategic partnerships, development & acquisition funding and exit & disposition services.

Somy has experience in various sectors through his consulting background, which has helped in adding value to clients in their real estate investment or divestment decisions. His expertise in understanding the finer nitty-gritties of a transaction from a financial perspective and his experience in negotiations & deal structuring makes him a go-to person for any complex or large-ticket transaction.`
WORK EXPERIENCE:
Somy has over 17 years of experience in the real estate sector, of which 14 years is with C&W. He has worked with various Private corporations & Government agencies in providing advisory solutions such as bid advisory, valuation studies, project structuring, documentation, etc. He has also extensively worked with global investors and occupiers on their investment and occupancy strategy especially in the commercial office space and part of advisory team for international REIT issuances of properties from India.

Shagoofa Rashid Khan, Senior Partner in the Mumbai office, leads the Investment Funds Practice. She has nearly 25 years of experience across structuring funds, managed accounts, fund documentation, private equity, acquisitions / exits/ restructuring / joint ventures and strategic initiatives (real estate and infrastructure sectors), international taxation and planning, corporate and commercial laws, business advisory, compliance, governance, ethics advisory, audit and finance. She has led the investment funds practice in leading Indian law firms and her clients included sovereign funds, pension funds and marquee global and domestic fund managers. She has also been in-house counsel for over 12 years and been responsible for legal, compliance, regulatory, governance and corporate affairs in leading Indian fund houses. Having been in the fund industry for more than two decades, she has hands-on experience across the life cycle of a fund from structuring a fund product to winding up.

Mr. Lakshmikumaran is a doyen of the Indian legal fraternity, having close to four decades of experience in the legal profession. He has represented clients and argued complex matters upto the highest courts of India as well as other foreign jurisdictions. His area of practice extends to a wide array of laws ranging from Taxation, Intellectual Property, Trade Remedies, Corporate Laws, Arbitration, Competition Law, Food Safety and Environmental Law.

He has played a pivotal role in developing and shaping tax jurisprudence in India including Customs and international trade. He Started his profession as Assistant professor in Mathematics in Madras University in 1973. While his journey continued as an administrator with the Indian Revenue Services, it led him to establishing a premier full-service law firm, Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan Attorneys in 1985. The firm has over 400 professionals extending litigation and advisory services through 14 offices across India.

Yash is an experienced practitioner in Indian securities law, Yash has been associated with a number of equity and debt capital market transactions including initial public offerings, qualified institutional placements, follow on offerings, rights offerings, ADRs, GDRs and FCCBs. He has also advised on various INVITs and REITs set up in India. He has advised on several pioneering capital markets transactions involving India’s leading corporates, technology companies and global and domestic investment banks. He also advises on matters relating to compliance with securities regulation such as insider trading and compliance with listing requirements.

Yash is also part of the faculty of the Securities Law Course at the Government Law College, University of Mumbai on topics relating to Indian securities markets and also conducts the securities law related modules related to the equity issuances. He has been nominated by the Firm on various committees including the SEBI Committee for Reviewing Disclosures and Application Form in Public Issues.

Ami Momaya (Mumbai) joined KKR in 2022 and is a member of the Asia-Pacific Infrastructure team. Ms. Momaya is responsible for infrastructure investments in India. Ms. Momaya began her career at Morgan Stanley where she spent 17 years across their India and New York offices and was instrumental in building their India infrastructure business. As a part of Morgan Stanley’s infrastructure business, Ms. Momaya led transactions across transportation, logistics and renewable energy. Prior to joining the Infrastructure Fund in 2008, Ms. Momaya worked at Morgan Stanley’s Investment Banking Division in New York where she focused on buyouts, mergers & acquisitions, initial public offerings and financings in services, outsourcing and payment processing sectors. Ms. Momaya holds a Bachelors in Commerce from Mumbai University and a post graduate degree from the Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies (Mumbai).

Ms. Meghana Pandit is the Chief Investment Officer at IndiGrid since 2018. She holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce and a master’s degree management studies from the University of Mumbai, has cleared all three levels of CFA, CFA Institute (US) and a post graduate diploma in financial analysis from the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India. She has over 20 years of experience in investment banking and corporate finance, covering the infrastructure sector across private equity transactions, mergers and acquisitions, initial public offerings, qualified institutional placements and infrastructure investment trusts, in sub-sectors such as roads, airports, renewable power, thermal power, ports and real estate. She has previously worked in IDFC Bank, Deloitte Financial Advisory Services India Private Limited and Essar Steel Limited.

At IndiGrid, she is responsible for M&A, fund raising, treasury, investor relations and other growth initiatives.

Mr. Pawan Kant is an Infrastructure Investment and Asset Management professional with three decades of experience in roads and highways, industrial parks, townships, special economic zones, power transmission and projects under Public-Private-Partnership (PPP) model of development. His domain experience includes M&A, organisational development, creating sustainable strategic business units, project execution, operations management, commercial and contracts, tendering.

Pawan has been part of reputed institutions such as Tata Group, Singapore Technologies, Great Eastern Shipping Company, Kalpataru Power Transmission Limited.

Currently, as CEO of the Investment Manager to IndInfravit Trust, he is responsible for the strategic direction and overall growth of the assets under the Trust’s portfolio. The portfolio comprises 13 operating toll road companies, spread across 6 states of India. These covers 5000 lane kms at an EV of Rs. 12000 crores.

Some of the past notable assets include 8 million sqft of IT SEZ executed on relationship contract (Alliance model), multi modal logistics project in Southeast Asia; 1200 ckms across country transmission project in central India.

He holds a Master’s Degree in Management and Bachelors Degree in construction technology, townships and real estate.

Background

• Gaurav Karnik is Partner with Ernst & Young tax practice in India and is the National Leader for Real Estate sector for EY India and National Leader for Sovereign Wealth Funds and Pension Funds for EY India
• Gaurav joined Ernst & Young in 2002 and is based in Gurgaon.
• He is a Chartered Accountant from Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and also holds a Bachelors degree in Economics from Delhi University
• Fluent in English, Hindi and Marathi

Skills

• Gaurav has more than 20 years of experience in the field of taxation, regulatory matters, and international taxation.
• Handling international taxation issues including,permanent establishment issues and other regulatory issues
• Handling Inbound and Outbound tax advisory related issues and Transaction tax related advisory issues

Professional Experience

• Advised several US, UK, Singapore based real estate and infrastructure focused private equity funds in structuring their India centric real estate an d infrastructure funds and their specific investments in Indian companies
• Advised several foreign real estate developers with their India real estate strategy and transactions.
• Advised global hospitality chains in establishing presence in India and tax litigation
• Advised global mall developers on their India real estate strategy and restructuring
• Advised developers and funds on potential REIT strategy
• Advising multinational companies on entry strategy, restructuring and setting up offshore tax efficient vehicles
• Advising on regulatory issues in establishing and doing business in India
• Actively involved in inbound and outbound structuring for clients engaged in the automotive, diversified industrial products, infrastructure, real estate companies
• Assisted number of multinational company on their tax disputes with Indian Revenue authorities
• Advising on international tax issues including permanent establishment issues in India
• Assisted various funds with tax due diligence in India
• Assisted domestic companies in outbound investments and group restructuring
• Assisted real estate industry associations such as APREA, FICCI etc with representation REIT, GST to the Ministry of Finance and SEBI
   

Tel +91 (0)12 4464 4032
Mobile +91 (0)98 11214668
Fax +91 (0)12 4464 4050
Email gaurav.karnik@in.ey.com 

Mr. Sriram Khattar is a fellow member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and a batch topper from Hindu College, Delhi University. With a prolific career spanning more than 3 decades, he has discharged leadership responsibilities at the group corporate level as well as various business head positions.

Currently, as the Vice Chairman & Managing Director of the Rental Business of DLF Group, he manages and is responsible for the rental portfolio for the largest real estate developer in India. Mr. Khattar provides strategic direction and leadership to the rental portfolio of ~ 44 million sq. ft. of office space and ~ 5.5 million sq. ft. of retail space across the country. He has been instrumental in creating an integrated business model, bringing together a motivated team committed to creating global benchmarks in safety, sustainability, ESG and customer centricity across the portfolio, whilst assuring the achievement of business plans.

He is the Deputy Chairman of the Asia Pacific Real Estate Association – India Chapter. He is also a member of the CII National Committee on Real Estate and Housing.

Mr. Khattar has held numerous senior leadership positions with reputed organizations in India and overseas.

Mr Gautam Dey is an engineering professional with masters in operation management. 

He started his career with the automobile giant Maruti-Suzuki. During his long stay in Japan and United States, he acquired knowledge on Robotics and Gas Turbine controls which he implemented back home and became the first to introduce process & building automation in his subsequent career. 

He is associated with real estate industries for more than 25 years in various capacities like project head, operation head, safety & sustainability head at national level for various leading business houses like Bennet & Colman, Unitech and now with DLF. 

He along with his pan India team has implemented various measures in DLF which led to its recognition as world’s leader in safety, sustainability and wellness. 

Under Gautam’s leadership, DLF became world’s first real estate organisation with the highest number of LEED platinum certified Buildings, world’s largest LEED Zero water certified buildings, Gurugram Cyber City as world’s first LEED Platinum City, first real estate organisation to acquire LEED zero waste certification from USGBC as well as highest number sword of honour from British Safety Council for several consecutive years ; Well – healthy safety certification
from IWBI, United States etc. 

His association with DLF as Executive Director (Operations and Technical services), besides Pan India operation, his dedicated focus on sustainability & social responsibility encompassing safety, contributed significantly for the organisation to become world’s leader in ESG both in national as well as global map.

An Engineer from Mysore University with more than 33 years of experience in the areas of Technical Services, Environment, Health & Safety (EHS), and Sustainability in the Hospitality industry. Currently heading the Technical, EHS, and Sustainability initiatives at ITC’s Hotel business. – ITC Hotels.

Under his active participation, guidance & efforts, team ITC Hotels has pioneered many path-breaking initiatives and achieved world-class high-performance results in Luxury, Resource consumption (Renewable energy, Water, Energy, and Waste Management), and Customer service, Safety, Sustainability & Innovation.

He has been recognized with many awards and accolades in Hospitality Technical Services, Innovations, New Technology, EHS & Sustainability.

Vinayaka has been credited with embedding the Hotel Division’s Credo “Responsible Luxury” in almost all ITC Hotels.

He took on the challenge of retrofitting all Luxury Hotels to LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) Platinum standards, making ITC Hotels the world’s largest chain of hotels with the maximum number of LEED Platinum Certified Properties.

Under his drive, guidance & efforts, paving the way for Global Hospitality Industry, in one of its kind remarkable feats, today the World’s first 11 Hotels with “LEED Zero Carbon” or “Net Zero Carbon Status” and World’s First Hotel with LEED Zero Water certification is from ITC Hotels.

Through all these efforts, ITC Hotels has already surpassed the sectoral carbon emission target of 2030 set by the UN Climate change committee as per COP 21- Paris Agreement.

This feat resulted in ITC Hotels being recognized as the “Greenest Luxury Hotel Chain in the world”, a unique achievement in the global hospitality industry.

• Rajnish is an Associate Partner with the Policy Advisory Group at EY
• He has a degree in Chemical engineer from IIT Delhi and a MBA from IIM Bangalore.
• In the past 30 years, he has gained wide experience in a diverse range of public policy issues including developing and evaluating options relating to policy reforms. He covers the overall macro-economy, sustainability, policy and regulatory design, pricing issues, competition issues and economic impact of policy and trade issues.
• Rajnish has worked extensively on sustainability related issues. He has worked extensively on financing of green buildings (residential and commercial) including frameworks to be used for defining green buildings, developing strategy paper on decarbonisation of the Indian economy, deign of potential carbon taxes for India, impact of green hydrogen policy on corporations and regulatory environment for sourcing green power across the country.
• Extensive experience in making policy recommendations to a variety of regulators including CCI, SEBI, TRAI, CERC. DGH and RBI.

Neeraj Bansal is the Co-Head and Chief Operating Officer of India Global at KPMG in India. He drives the India Global growth agenda through cross-corridor strategic initiatives and supports diverse geographies under the India Global Banner.

A senior partner, Neeraj has over 25 years of experience in risk consulting practice. He has significant experience in supply chain function and has led multiple client engagements in centralisation/un- bundling of supply chains; process reviews; creation of procurement and contracting manuals and supporting clients’ implementation of SCM ERP modules for major companies operating in FMCG, consumer durables, pharma, EPC, ENR and textiles sectors.

Neeraj has served on multiple forums like the Advisory Executive Team of KPMG in India. He has been a member of KPMG Global BCRE Steering Group, Steering Group of JVs in ASEAN, Central Government Task Force on Project Time and Cost and advisory groups of media organizations. Further, Neeraj has been a member of various forums of industry associations, such as FICCI, RICS, NAREDCO, CREDAI and CII and has led industry association delegations to ASEAN and Middle Eastern countries.

Alessandro Fiascaris is Senior Vice President, Head of Investments Asia Pacific at Oxford Properties, a leading global real estate investor, asset management and business builder.

Alessandro leads a team responsible for investments in Asia Pacific, having joined Oxford in 2022.

Prior to joining Oxford, Alessandro worked at a Blackstone for fifteen years in Singapore, Hong Kong and London.

Alessandro holds a BA in Mathematics from Cambridge University and an MBA from Stanford University. He currently lives in Singapore.

Mr. Sanjay Dutt is the MD & CEO of Tata Realty & Infrastructure Ltd and Tata Housing Development Company Ltd. Mr. Sanjay has over 28 years of experience in the Real Estate Development and Consulting space.Mr. Sanjay Dutt is the MD & CEO of Tata Realty & Infrastructure Ltd and Tata Housing Development Company Ltd. Mr. Sanjay has over 28 years of experience in the Real Estate Development and Consulting space.

He is managing 20 ongoing projects measuring across 13 cities in India, Sri Lanka & Maldives, which includes Commercial, Retail, Hospitality and Residential (Luxury/Premier, Affordable, Second Home & Mixed-Use Township). He is also involved in the management of the infrastructure projects, which includes 3 rope ways, 4 roadways & a Metro project in Pune.

In his previous role, he was the CEO India Operations & Private Funds with The CapitaLand, a multinational Alternative Asset Management Company focusing on real estate, infrastructure and private equity.

Sanjay spent 23 years with globally top 3 real estate consulting companies. He was MD South Asia at Cushman & Wakefield (2001-2008 and 2012-2016), also CEO Business with JLL (2008 – 2012) and was one of the founder member of CBRE, India (1996-2001).Sanjay holds a Post-Graduate in Marketing & HR from the International Management Institute. He is the Chairman South Asia - RICS, Joint Chairman of the FICCI - Real Estate Committee and Chairman APREA Asia-Advocacy Committee, Advisory Board NAREDCO and Co-Chairman of ASSOCHAM – Ease of Doing Business Council and a member of CoreNet Global.

Sigrid is the Chief Executive Officer of Asia Pacific Real Assets Association (APREA). Based in Singapore, she is responsible for overseeing the strategic direction, initiatives and operations of the association across Asia Pacific. Under her leadership, APREA repositioned to an industry trade group focusing on real estate and infrastructure.

Sigrid joined APREA’s executive team in January 2019.

Prior to APREA, she served as Managing Director of Asia Pacific Research and Advisory Services of Cushman & Wakefield (C&W) from 2010 through 2018, where she was responsible for research, thought leadership, strategy formulation and client management.  Before relocating to Singapore, she was based in Washington, D.C. and led C&W’s U.S. research group in the Mid-Atlantic region, overseeing all aspects of market research activities in the Washington, DC; Virginia; Suburban Maryland, Baltimore; and Philadelphia areas. Prior to joining C&W, Sigrid served as a Senior Economist for the National Association of Realtors (NAR). In that position, she developed NAR’s office, warehouse, retail, multi-family housing, and international research programs.

A recognized expert in global economic, public policy and real estate issues, Sigrid is a frequent speaker at industry events.  Her commentary on commercial and residential real estate markets is also regularly featured in a wide array of global publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Bloomberg, New York Times and Reuters. Additionally, she has made several television appearances on financial networks and radio such as CNBC, Bloomberg, CNN, National Public Radio and Channel News Asia.

Sigrid holds a Master of Business Administration from Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management and a Master’s degree in Economics from Pennsylvania State University. She is a member of several civic groups including the Rotary Club of Raffles City in Singapore, where she has served in various leadership positions, and serves in the Executive Committee of the Crohn’s & Colitis Society of Singapore.

Chanakya (Chan) Chakravarti, based in Mumbai, is responsible for implementing the investment and asset-management activities for the firm’s indirect investment strategies in the Asia-Pacific region, assisted by a team, locally. He collaborates with internal and external stakeholders to implement and consolidate the firm's indirect investments in the region through commitments into discretionary funds, co-investments alongside strategic partners and public market instruments.

Mr. Chakravarti is a seasoned manager with more than 29 years of experience, including over 23 years in real estate investment, and development in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Before joining Ivanhoé Cambridge in 2017, he was a Managing Director, Global Alternatives, Asia, at J.P. Morgan Chase. From 2007 to 2011, he worked for Actis Capital LLP, first as Managing Director, India Real Estate and then as Chief Executive Officer of BlueLife Ltd. in Mauritius, an Actis portfolio company. Before that, he was Joint Managing Director and Country Manager at Cushman & Wakefield South Asia for eight years.  

Mr. Chakravarti holds a bachelor's degree with a major in accounting and economics from the University of Mumbai. He speaks English and Hindi, fluently.

Hardeep Sachdeva is a Senior Partner at AZB & Partners. With more than 28 years’ experience, he advises Indian as well as international clients and is consistently rated as India’s leading corporate and M&A lawyer.

Hardeep advises across several sectors, including real estate, infrastructure, retail, hospitality, healthcare, industrial parks, special economic zones (SEZs), e-commerce, education, technology, infrastructure, alcoholic beverages and others. Hardeep has been associated with several landmark mergers and acquisitions and private equity investment transactions in such sectors and has done some pioneering work in all of these areas.

Hardeep has been consistently ranked as a leading corporate lawyer in India by some of the most credible publications, including The Legal 500 - Asia Pacific, Chambers - Asia, Expert Guide, Who's Who Legal and others. He is an economics graduate from Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), Delhi University and a law graduate from the Campus Law Centre (CLC), Faculty of Law, Delhi University. He was admitted to the Indian Bar in 1995. In 1995, he joined Ajay Bahl & Co., a Delhi- based corporate law firm which was one of the predecessor firms that formed AZB & Partners in the year 2004. He is a key member of AZB & Partners since.

Gautam qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1987 and had stints with two leading accounting and tax consultancy firms, which was followed by a long association of over 12 years with an independent practice founded by him. He joined PwC as a Partner in September 2003, and since then has held various roles including leading the India Tax and Regulatory practice between July 2015 and December 2020, prior to which he was leading the Tax and Regulatory practice in Western India and the Financial Services’ Tax and Regulatory group. He was also the Asset Management Sector leader for PwC in India. He presently leads the PwC global relationship for one of India’s largest conglomerates.

Over the years, Gautam has been working with multinational and domestic clients across a wide spectrum of services and has varied experience of over 30 years spanning multiple sectors.

Gautam is presently a member of SEBI’s Alternative Investment Policy Advisory Committee as well as of the SEBI HySec Committee dealing with REITs and InvITs. He is a Board member of the India Chapter of APREA, a regional Real Assets Industry Body and a member of the CII Committee on Private Equity. He has been a member of the American Chamber of Commerce, the National Direct Tax Committee of the Confederation of Indian Industry, as well as of the Expert Advisory Committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

Gautam holds a postgraduate degree in law and financial management and is also a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.