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 and interest include Asset Allocation, Multi-asset Solutions, Investment Strategy, Risk Management and Big Data & Analytics, and he advises asset owners across the world on these subjects.
As Managing Director of Multi-Asset Strategies and Solutions at Blackrock, Pranay designed total return solutions and managed multi-asset portfolios for pension, endowment, foundation, insurance, private wealth, and family office clients. 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 for client portfolios and developed the allocation and risk framework for the private assets portfolio.
Previously, he was the Chief Investment Officer at Lombard Odier and ING Investment Management Asia Pacific, 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 Quantitative Strategies (Eq and FI) at APG Investments in the Netherlands, where he managed a €20bn multi-strategy, multi-asset fund and Chief Investment Strategist – Asia for Societe Generale Corporate and Investment Bank. Pranay has also been the Head of International Quantitative Research at JP Morgan Investment Management in New York. His book “Multi-Asset Investing: A Practitioner’s Framework” , proposes that the fundamental structure of institutional and individuals’ portfolios needs to evolve from single asset class active management, toward a multi-asset class allocation framework.
Pranay holds a Bachelor of Technology in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi specializing in CAD/CAM. In the 1980s, Pranay used four-dimensional robotic manipulator design modelling techniques for the design of automobile suspension systems for Suzuki Motor Co. Japan. He subsequently applied fluid dynamic modelling techniques for the simulation of flow of fluids down-hole in oil wells for Dowell Schlumberger.
In the early 1990s, Pranay utilized the then developing field of relational databases and applied it for developing systems for the manufacture and production control of missile systems. With a career change to financial markets after a Master’s degree, Pranay applied the same database and modelling techniques to produce an advanced analysis and portfolio management system for JP Morgan Chase Investment Management, which was incubated initially in Singapore and subsequently implemented in New York. Since then, Pranay has designed, developed, and implemented advanced database, analytics, and diagnostics tools as decision support systems six times across the world for various organization with assets of over $400 bn being monitored and managed using these systems. These state-of-the-art portfolio analysis systems have been used in managing portfolios using quantitative analysis of big data, portfolio diagnostics to re-engineer investment processes and creating customized client solutions for asset owners of all sizes and sophistication.
In the 2000s, Pranay used heuristic time series modelling, neural network and artificial intelligence techniques to manage over $1b in pension assets for APG Investments, Netherlands. These methods were deployed on short term financial data and were implemented using a blades architecture and program trading algorithms. in 2018, he helped advise a large Middle East group in designing and implementing a big data platform for managing a large pool of assets.
Pranay served as a founding member on the Advisory Board of Stashaway, the first licensed retail roboadvisor in Singapore, which launched in mid-2017. Pranay’s upcoming book “Fintech: The New DNA of Financial Services” focuses on how dramatically the financial services business is likely to change in the future with the rapid advances underway in financial technology. 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.
Pranay 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 has a MBA in Finance from XLRI India and is a CFA Charter holder. He is a frequent commentator on CNN International, CNBC, Bloomberg TV and BBC World and at conferences and thought leadership forums worldwide.