Rajiv Kochhar

Founder & CEO

Biography

Rajiv has over 30 years of experience in financial services with experience across corporate finance, structured trade finance, M&A, financial restructuring and business advisory.

In the early years of his career, Rajiv worked for a boutique Investment Bank, 20th Century Finance, across functions like Treasury, Funds Management, Execution and ultimately Client Origination and Relationship(s).

Rajiv then worked with the TATA group, in their strategy team and soon led the Tata Group’s foray into Investment Banking at TATA Finance, which had traditionally been a ‘Truck & Fleet finance company’. He built this into a very successful enterprise, making it one of the market leaders within three years. With the investment banking experience gained in the 20th Century and Tata Finance, Rajiv founded Avista in the late ’90s as a Mid-Market Investment bank focused on the high growth mid-tier corporates. During the past decade, he has built the business across regions, with the help of a diverse group of people to firmly establish Avista as a Pan Asian Investment Bank. With the help of global partnerships, his current focus is on growing the cross-border business across various corporate finance products and geographies.

Rajiv has an MBA in Finance from SP Jain Institute of Management, Mumbai and is currently pursuing the prestigious OPM program at the Harvard Business School. Rajiv graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Commerce from the University of Mumbai.