Vikram Gandhi

Vikram S. Gandhi is the Gerald P. Kaminsky Senior Lecturer of Business Administration in the General Management Unit. He has developed and teaches two new courses in the Elective Curriculum of the MBA Program. The first is a finance and investing course, Sustainable Investing and the second is an immersive field course, Development While Decarbonizing: India’s Path to Net Zero, which focuses on climate related opportunities and risks in a growth economy. He also teaches Leadership & Corporate Accountability and has taught FIELD Global Immersion and The Entrepreneurial Manager, in the Required Curriculum of the MBA Program. Along with MBA courses, he has taught in various Executive Education programs. He is also a member of the Impact Co-Laboratory focusing on research in the area of Impact Investing.

Vikram is the Founder of Asha Ventures. Asha Ventures is an impact-oriented venture capital firm that invests equity capital with a target of market-rate returns in social enterprises. In addition, Asha works with its investee companies in providing strategic and management direction, access to its network, and guidance on impact measurement and management. Its affiliated organization, Asha Trust, engages with government, business and civil society on key policy issues. Asha Trust is also a Co-Founder of The Blended Finance Company which advises and structures blended finance transactions to address important societal challenges.

He is also a Senior Advisor to The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. He is a member of the Business Administration Advisory Board at University of the People. He is also a member of the Young Presidents Organization (YPO) since 1997 and has been a part of the New York, Hong Kong and Mumbai chapters. He has spent 23 years in investment banking at Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse. He holds an MBA from the Harvard Business School (Class of 1989) where he was designated a Baker Scholar, and a B.Com from the University of Mumbai. He is also a qualified Chartered Accountant.

Vikram was Vice Chairman of Investment Banking and Global Head of the Financial Institutions Business for Credit Suisse, in New York and Hong Kong. He was a member of Credit Suisse's Global Investment Banking Management Committee and the Fixed Income Operating Committee. Prior to his tenure at Credit Suisse, Vikram worked at Morgan Stanley, where he was Co-Head of Global FIG in New York; his prior work at Morgan Stanley included heading the Firm's institutional strategy area, its Global E-commerce Committee, and as Country Head and President of Morgan Stanley India.  During his career in investment banking, Vikram has focused on advising Board of Directors and CEO’s around the globe on strategic direction and the implementation of major mergers, acquisitions, initial public offerings and other capital raising initiatives, and corporate restructurings and buyouts.

Vikram has been involved with various developmental activities in India and globally. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Grameen Foundation, and a Board Member of KEC International. Vikram is a Founding Member of Harvard University’s South Asia Initiative, and a Founder of Ashoka University, the first liberal arts college established in India. He is also a member of The Global Leaders Circle at Harvard Business School.