Pranay Gupta has over 30 years of experience in Europe, UK, US and Asia in managing all liquid asset classes and illiquid assets across global markets. His areas of experience include Total Portfolio Management, Asset Allocation, Multi-asset Solutions, Portfolio Risk and Big Data & Analytics, and he advises asset owners across the world on these subjects.
As a Partner at Mercer (Marsh & McLennan) and a Managing Director of Multi-Asset Strategies and Solutions at Blackrock, Pranay served as an Outsourced Chief Investment Officer for DB and DC pensions, endowments and foundations, insurance and private wealth clients, and designed and managed over $300bn of multi-asset portfolio solutions. As Head of Multi-Asset Strategies at Fullerton Fund Management (a subsidiary of Temasek Holdings, the sovereign wealth fund of Singapore), Pranay was responsible for strategic and tactical allocation and developed the allocation and risk framework for the private assets.
Previously, he was the Chief Investment Officer at Lombard Odier and ING Investment Management, where he led investment teams across 12 countries to manage over US$85bn of institutional, insurance and retail assets, with investment teams managing equity, fixed income, multi-asset, private, hedge fund and quantitative strategy portfolios. Prior to that, he was Deputy Chief Investment Officer at Axial Investment Management in London, where he helped manage a $55bn alternatives portfolio, Head of International Quantitative Research at JP Morgan Investment Management, and Chief Investment Strategist – Asia for Societe Generale Investment Bank.
As Head of Global Quantitative Strategies (Eq and FI) at APG Investments, Netherlands, Pranay managed a €20bn multi-strategy, multi-asset fund and was a member of the Investment Leadership Team guiding the restructuring of the €300bn pension portfolio. This new innovative portfolio structure which challenged the traditional SAA framework led to pioneering a collection of frameworks and techniques has today become known as the Total Portfolio Approach. His book “Multi-Asset Investing: A Practitioner’s Framework” , elaborates how the fundamental structure of institutional and individuals’ portfolios needs to evolve from single asset class active management, toward a multi-asset class total portfolio framework, and he has been teaching an executive program on Reserve Management using a Total Portfolio Approach since 2017 to sovereign funds and institutional clients.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Pranay used four-dimensional robotic manipulator modelling techniques to design automobile suspension systems for Suzuki Motor Co. Japan, fluid dynamic modelling techniques for oil-well simulations for Dowell Schlumberger, and relational data for manufacture and production planning control of missile systems. He applied these techniques to develop advanced analysis, investment decision diagnostics and portfolio management systems for various organizations which have been used to manage assets of over $400 bn. In 2004, these systems incorporated heuristic time series modelling, neural network and artificial intelligence techniques to manage pension assets, and in 2018, it incorporated the use of a big data platform for managing a large pool of assets. In 2020, Pranay pioneered the design and development of a cloud-based investment solutions platform, blending behavioral finance and multi-horizon optimization, to create individually personalized investment and retirement solutions for Schroders. His book “Fintech: The New DNA of Financial Services” details how the financial services business will change with the rapid advances in FinTech.
Pranay serves as a founding member on the Advisory Board of Stashaway, a B2C roboadvisor across Asia and the Middle East, where he is the Chairman of the Investment Committee, and is an Adjunct Associate Professor at Nanyang Business School of Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He has been a Research Consultant at the Centre of Asset Management Research and Investments (CAMRI) at the National University of Singapore, and a Curriculum Director for the CFA Program and served as the Chairman of the Investment Committee of the Board of Trustees of the CFA Institute Research Foundation. Pranay holds a MBA in Finance from XLRI India, Bachelor of Technology (Mechanical Engineering) from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and a CFA Charter. He is a frequent commentator on CNN International, CNBC, Bloomberg TV, BBC World, conferences and thought leadership forums worldwide.