Mercatus is excited to welcome Rishi Karir to our growing team as VP of North American and European Sales. Rishi brings a wealth of experience in business development from Bloomberg, Credit Suisse, Barclays and others. We recently sat down with him to learn more about his new role and what brought him to Mercatus.
What is your role at Mercatus and what do you believe are some unmet needs from private market investors around data management technology?
Data is the bedrock of financial markets, but many firms struggle to manage the enormous amount of data they have and receive daily. So I’ll be working with Private Markets firms in North America and Europe to show them how they can solve this huge issue. The journey doesn’t stop there, we enable firms to manage risk across their business and scale their investment decision process – crucial in such a competitive environment.
What is your career background?
I regard my 20th year in financial markets as the halfway point. In terms of the roles I’ve had so far, from working with institutional investors and Hedge Funds in algorithmic trading at Credit Suisse, or Prime Services for systemic investors at Barclays, being the Chief Operating Officer at a Family Office and latterly leveraging technology at Bloomberg, they all had a common theme: challenging myself to learn as much as I can about an industry I am passionate about. My goal is to use some of the knowledge and skills I have learnt so far to help bring transparency and efficiency to Private Markets.
What excites you about Mercatus?
People, Platform, Product and Purpose.
The team and culture here is phenomenal and many people have been very welcoming. To be successful in this business you need a great platform. In my opinion, State Street’s strategy to buy Charles River has led to a paradigm shift in the industry and there is no other platform like this. Combined with such an innovative product, we have a unique opportunity to continue to change the industry at Mercatus – that’s my purpose in my role.
How do you see private market technology evolving over the next decade?
More transparency, more efficiency, more insight. Technology can bring so much added value for all of us with 401ks and Pension Fund investments in Private Markets.
What is your favorite / go-to Karaoke song?
Suspicious Minds by Elvis and, since our wonderful children were born, Insomnia by Faithless.
