Prior to founding Jina in 2003, Mr. Shah was an investment professional at Trenwith Securities, where he successfully advised several Fortune 20 clients on international M&A transactions. Prior to Trenwith, Mr. Shah served as Principal at Resurgence Capital, where he led private equity investments in India and China.

Under Mr. Shah’s leadership, Jina Ventures has become a premier emerging markets private equity firm. In 2005, Jina Ventures launched its first India-focused private equity fund, which invested in 12 Indian companies, added value through strategic development and completed 11 exits in less than 3 years, delivering top quartile performance. Jina is currently raising its second fund, the Jina Strategic Growth Fund, which will invest in late state Indian service companies.

Over his career, Mr. Shah has sat on the board of directors of 6 Indian companies, 4 US companies and a variety of non-profit and start-up ventures. Mr. Shah currently sits on the board of Liners India Limited and SmartSpaces.org. He appears regularly on business news networks and as a panelist at industry conferences (see: media).

Mr. Shah received his Bachelor of Business Administration from the George Washington University and his MBA in Corporate Finance from New York University’s Stern School of Business.

Mr. Hosokawa is a partner at Jina Ventures by virtue of his leadership and anchor investment in Jina Fund I through his company, HWL Private Limited. With over 25 years of experience in the finance industry, Mr. Hosokawa brings tremendous expertise in private equity, institutional investing, merchant banking and equities trading. Over the past few years, Mr. Hosokawa has managed the private wealth of prominent families in Japan and Singapore.

Prior to founding HWL Private Limited and joining Jina Ventures as an LP affiliate and advisor, Mr. Hosokawa was a head equity trader at Credit Suisse First Boston in their Tokyo Office. At CSFB, he was responsible for managing the accounts of several major Japanese pension funds and institutions. Prior to this, Mr. Hosokawa was the Head of Trading in the Tokyo branch of E*Trade Institutional Securities (formerly Tiedemann International Research). His career credits also include “Head of Japan Desk” for Merrill Lynch London, an executive position at Citibank Private Bank and a Head Trader for the Nichimen Corporation.

In the past, Mr. Hosokawa shared a seat with Mr. Shah on the board of directors of Liners India Limited, Universal Power Transformers Pvt Ltd and UMA Precision Limited.

Mr. Hosokawa received his MBA from NYU Stern and Bachelor of Arts in Economics from the University of Osaka

Vishal Savani is a partner of Jina Ventures Inc. Over the past few years, he has worked extensively with Jina Ventures on strategic intiatives involving clients and portfolio companies including Swiss Pharma Contract Ltd, Liners India Limited and Universal Power Transformers Pte Ltd.

Previously, Mr. Savani was a Director at World Links, a World Bank spin-off focused on leveraging technology to improve global education. In addition, Mr. Savani directed World Links’ India operations, launched in partnership with the World Economic Forum and financed by Accenture, JPMorganChase, and Microsoft. Before joining World Links, Mr. Savani was a consultant at Mercer Management Consulting. Mr. Savani began his career as a member of the Financial Advisory Services practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers

Mr. Savani holds a BA in Political Science & Diplomatic History from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Mr. Gowda leads Jina Venture’s India team. Umesh is a leading investment banker in Mumbai, having transacted over $200M in capital in leading private equity and publicly listed companies across India. Mr. Gowda possesses a deep expertise of the India market, and an extensive network of relationships across the subcontinent. Over his career, Mr. Gowda has led extensive business development initiatives to add value and enhance market share for his clients. He has previously launched the Red Bull brand in India, growing the company to a 10% market share in 1 year. Mr. Gowda has previously led advisory assignments for major investors including Fortune 20 global instiutions in the US, Switzerland and Japan.

Mr. Gowda holds an Electronics Engineering degree from the University of Mysore, a post grad diploma in Foreign Trade & Masters in Finance from the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Prerak Vakharia is an associate with Jina Ventures with extensive experience in operational management of the New York office, and will lead the launch of the Jina office in Ahmedabad, India, where he will focus on deal sourcing and investment initiatives across Gujarat state.

Prior to joining the Jina team, Prerak was a member of the technical team at Ztango Inc, the nation’s leading wireless messaging and multimedia solutions Company. Mr. Vakharia led technical development at Ztango (now known as WiderThan) with international telecom clients such as SaskTel, one of the leading carriers in Canada. Prior to his tenure at Ztango, Prerak was a leading engineer at major Indian firms including Vacunair and Brady Morris. He brings to Jina Ventures a wealth of resources and relationships spanning the Indian subcontinent and Asia. Mr. Vakharia received his mechanical engineering degree from the Nirmal Institute in Ahmedabad India.

Paul Richter
LIFE SCIENCES

Mr. Richter is the life sciences industry head of Jina Ventures and leads all sourcing, development and execution functions across the industry. Previously, Paul was responsible for $1 billion dollars in urban development and environmental restoration for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection. He evaluated pharmacology, alternative energy, environmental projects for Exxon Corporation, Environmental Defense Fund, WHEB Ventures, and Privileged Discovery Partners. Paul has worked extensively with life science ventures based in Canada, United States, India, United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Russian Federation, and Spain. Over the past few years, Mr. Richter has advised and worked with over 15 major pharmaceutical companies in their drug co-development, M&A and financing initiatives.

Mr. Richter was awarded his B.S., Sigma Xi, in Biology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and his B.S., summa cum laude, in Management Science from Kean University.

Mr.Uchida leads Jina’s Japan-Thai activities through his company, Asia Trade Bangkok Co.,Ltd. Previous to his role at Jina Ventures, Mr. Uchida led projects in the coordinator officer at Eastern Asia University. Mr. Uchida’s wide experience in Thailand includes political, business and academic circles across the country.

Mr.Uchida received a Bachelor's Degree Law of International Business from the University of Kyoto Sangyo, and Master's Degree of International Relations from University of Ritsumeikan Graduate School.

Pranjul Srivastava is the Director of Business Development at Jina Ventures Inc. Prior to joining Jina, Mr. Srivastava worked at AllianceBernstein and JPMorgan where he managed relationships with institutional clients encompassing over $50 billion AUM. In addition, he presented to prospects on the firms’ product offerings, its philosophies and methodologies regarding asset allocation and wealth management.

Mr. Srivastava started his career at IDEAglobal as the Business Development Manager where he devised and executed on a distribution channel strategy for the firm’s independent financial market research. He developed several relationships with financial portals, ECNs, online banks and brokerage firms that helped grow the research business significantly.

Mr. Srivastava is a graduate from Tufts University with a double major in Economics and Biology, and has received an MBA in International Management from Thunderbird, The School of Global Management.

In his last corporate position, Sanjeev was Director of Marketing & Planning for Magna Powertrain, part of the $23B Magna group, located in Detroit. Prior to this he was Director of Marketing, Strategic Planning and Asian Sales for New Venture Gear, a $2B joint venture between DaimlerChrysler & General Motors. He holds six U.S. patents and has several publications to his credit. Sanjeev began his career in 1984 with Chrysler Corporation. He is currently Senior Advisor to Chanin Capital Partners/Duff and Phelps, a $250m Investment Bank with offices worldwide. As a pro-bono advisor, Sanjeev is a member of the Advisory Board of the Marketing Department at Oakland University’s School of Business in Auburn Hills, Michigan.

Sanjeev has an undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India, and a Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering from Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York. He has attended Executive Development Programs at Cornell, MIT and Wharton Business School.

Adam Brandenburger is a senior strategic advisor for Jina Ventures.  Mr. Brandenburger is currently the J.P. Valles Professor at the Stern School of Business at New York University, and was voted Stern MBA Professor of the Year in 2006.  Prior to joining Stern, he held the Class of 1958 Professorship at Harvard Business School.

Adam is an authority on game theory and its application to business strategy. His book Co-opetition (with Barry Nalebuff, Doubleday, 1996) is used by businesses as a guide to strategy in the information economy, and has been translated into more than a dozen languages.  Born in London, England, Adam received his B.A., M.Phil., and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Cambridge.
He was a Harkness Fellow from 1983 to 1985.