TEAM
Sandy Mehta, CFA – CEO & CIO, Evaluate Research Ltd.
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Sandy has 30 years of experience in the investment research and asset management industries. Starting his career as the first ever analyst hired by John W. Rogers, Jr. at leading small/midcap money manager Ariel Capital Management in Chicago, he has covered small and midcap equities throughout his career. In 2015, Sandy founded Evaluate Research, his third entrepreneurial venture in global financial services, focusing on providing institutional quality research coverage for rapidly growing companies in both Developed Markets, such as the USA, to Emerging Markets such as China/HK, India, and other ASEAN countries.
In 2009, he founded investment advisory firm Value Investment Principals [VIP], focused on identifying unique “deep value” investment opportunities on a global basis, broadly diversified by country and sector. Its clientele has included some of the largest as well as most prestigious money managers in the USA and Europe. With a strong performance track record, VIP’s stock picks feature an intuitively compelling mix of industry leadership, rapid growth and high dividends, in addition to extraordinarily cheap valuation metrics.
Sandy also founded Acumen Capital Management in 2004, and incubated a long-short pan-Asia [ex-Japan] hedge fund with US$20 million in initial assets at launch, and successfully grew the firm to over $200 million in both hedge fund and long-only assets. Acumen’s client mix have included seed investors Weston Capital [Stamford, CT] and Atlas Capital [London], European and US pension clients, institutional investors, fund-of-funds, and five separate accounts – the largest being a $50 million mandate from a Swiss publicly-listed company.
Prior to launching Acumen, Sandy was a Portfolio Manager of $3 billion in global and international core portfolios at Wellington Management Company in Boston. At Putnam Investments, Sandy was a Portfolio Manager of two 5-Star rated funds – Putnam Global Equity Fund, which was a “flagship” product with $15 billion in mutual fund and separate account assets [50 institutional clients], and the $2 billion Putnam Capital Opportunities Fund. He also incubated a global small cap fund, raising $300 million in initial assets. Sandy was previously Head of the global financial research team at Putnam, supervising eight analysts covering global financial equities.
Sandy has had the good fortune of working with some legendary value investors, including Arnie Schneider III, Partner at Wellington Management and Founder/CEO of Schneider Capital (profiled in Barron’s), and John Neff, Fund Manager for 31 years of the Windsor Fund (featured in Barrron’s Roundtable, Money Masters of our Time, and author of John Neff on Investing).
Awards & Recognition:
Acumen’s Asia Hedge Fund: Finalist HFMWeek 2007 Performance Awards in the “Best Newcomer” category. Pensions & Investments “Top Performing Hedge Funds [8-20- 2007]. Highlighted in “Best Performing Hedge Funds” for Year 2007 by Boston Business Journal.
Putnam Capital Opportunities Fund: Morningstar 5-Star rating. “Category King” top-10 rank for year 2000 ranking by Wall Street Journal [1-08- 2002]. “Best in Class 2002” by Mutual Fund Magazine [1-2001]. “No. 1 Performing Fund in Category – trailing one-year performance” WSJ [5-25- 2001].
Putnam Global Equity Fund: Morningstar 5-Star rating. “Best in Class 2002” selection by Mutual Fund Magazine [1-2001].
Media Interviews:
CNBC TV, BusinessWeek, Forbes, Bloomberg TV, CNN, FOX TV, Barron’s, International Herald Tribune, New York Times, Entrepreneur Magazine, AsiaHedge, Wall Street Transcript, NDTV Profit, Money magazine, Financial Express, HedgeFund.net, Stocks Options & Futures TV, Chicago Tribune, Crain’s, MARHedge, Associated Press, Bloomberg, Washington Post, Times of India, Business Day, Shanghai Daily, International Business Times, Indian Express, Reuter’s, China Daily, Financial Post, South China Morning Post, Value Walk, theStreet.com, etc.
Sandy has an MBA degree [Director’s List honors] from the Wharton School, a Master of International Management [with Honors] from the American Graduate School of International Management and a Bachelor of Commerce [Distinction and University Ranking] from Sydenham College, Mumbai. He attained the Chartered Financial Analyst designation at the age of 25. Sandy has also won a collegiate level chess tournament. Sandy is a member of YPO, Young Presidents Organization. He is also a Director of several companies.
Ketan Chaphalkar – Senior Equity Research Analyst
Ketan has 9+ years investment industry experience, including portfolio management, researching global stocks, and equity advisory at leading blue chip financials ICICI Bank and HDFC Securities. Passion for stocks is what drives him to do financial research from a long term perspective. He has earned two graduate degrees, an MBA in Finance from Sinhgad Institute of Management and MSc in Economics from Symbiosis School of Economics, in addition to a Bachelor in Engineering degree. He has also attained Research Analyst and Investment Advisor certifications.
Ketan covered sectors such as auto and auto ancillary, information technology and infrastructure while working with Zephyr Financial. Generation of new stock ideas, detailed maintenance research, along with portfolio management of large/small/midcap portfolios with rebalancing, addition or subtraction of stock weights was the detailed work profile.
At Evaluate, Ketan is focused on researching global companies (in both Emerging and Developed markets) in a disciplined and objective manner, including meeting senior management, monitoring quarterly earnings and significant news flow, and setting discounted cash flow derived price targets for each stock.
Pooja Burgul – Business Development and Marketing Manager
Pooja has 10+ years of experience in business development and marketing in various service industries, including having worked with Bajaj Capital. She completed a Bachelor of Engineering degree at M.I.T., and an MBA from the Indira Institute of Management, University of Pune. In addition, she has attained certification in Capital Markets and the Mutual Fund Industry from the National Stock Exchange as well as gained Digital Marketing certifications from Google. At Evaluate, Pooja is focused on creating and maintaining strong relationships with clients as well as with major global investment information platforms and ensuring the firm maintains the highest quality and compliance standards.
Chuck Hanabergh – Director, Marketing
Chuck has over 30 years experience in investment research sales to institutional investors throughout the USA and also in Europe. With a current database of 30,000 active Fund Managers and analysts, Chuck has personally met with hundreds of investors in their offices across the USA over the years. Chuck has been actively marketing for Sandy Mehta [Evaluate Founder/CEO] for over 10 years, thus building a strong working relationship. Chuck graduated with honors from Rutgers University in 1992 with a bachelor’s degree in Economics, and received an MBA in Finance from Seton Hall in 2002.
ADVISORY BOARD
Larry Ioffredo – Senior Fund Manager, First Eagle Investment Management, New York
New York-based First Eagle, with over US$100 billion in assets, is one of the most renowned global money management firms with an outstanding long-term track record. A Wharton alumnus, Larry has over 25 years of investment experience focusing on international markets.
Glen Kleczka, CFA – Founder & CEO of InView Investment Management, Chicago
Prior to founding Chicago-based InView, Glen was a Founding Partner at Brinson Partners [now UBS Global Asset Management, $150bn in then assets], and Founder of the Value practice at William Blair & Co. Glen has managed a 5 Star Fund and won Morningstar’s prestigious Mutual Funds “Best in Class” Award.