Our Team

Arcesium combines elegant, cloud-native software with experienced teams of professionals to deliver modern solutions across the investment lifecycle.

Building on a platform developed and tested by one of the world's leading investment and technology development firms, the D. E. Shaw group, Arcesium launched as an independent company in 2015. We received additional equity backing from our second seed client, Blackstone Alternative Asset Management, the world's largest discretionary allocator to hedge funds. In January 2020, J.P. Morgan made a strategic investment in the company.

Arcesium has grown to support more than $380 billion in assets with a staff of over 1,000 software engineering, accounting, operations, and treasury professionals.

The Arcesium team has decades of combined experience in the financial services industry and knows how to meet the needs of our clients, including the requirement to adapt quickly in an ever-changing environment. We help our clients modernize their technology and optimize their organizational footprint so that they can focus on what matters most to their firm.

Global Management Team

Gaurav Suri

Chief Executive Officer
Bio+

Gaurav Suri is the CEO of Arcesium. Gaurav was formerly a Managing Director and Head of Information Technology and Software Development for the D. E. Shaw group.

From 1996 until Arcesium's launch in 2015, he focused on developing proprietary software associated with the D. E. Shaw group's investment management activities and building out the firm's software development operations in Hyderabad, India.

He also oversaw the D. E. Shaw group's office in Hyderabad. Gaurav received a bachelor's degree in computer science and engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and a master's degree in computer science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Manideepa Chakravarty

Head of Financial Operations, India
Bio+

Manideepa Chakravarty heads the Financial Operations group at Arcesium India. During her 10 years at the D. E. Shaw group's office in Hyderabad, Mani managed Trade Accounting & Operations, Pricing, and Liquidity and Collateral Management. She has over 18 years of experience in the financial services industry, focusing on operations, reconciliations, and project & process management.

Bryan Dougherty

Managing Director,
Head of Technology
Bio+

Bryan Dougherty is a Managing Director and the Head of Technology for Arcesium, overseeing platform development, infrastructure, and security.

Prior to the formation of Arcesium, Bryan was Head of Middle and Back Office Technology at the D. E. Shaw group for nine years.

Bryan started his career at Random Walk Computing, a technology consultancy focused on the capital markets where he worked on a variety of projects for exchanges / marketplaces, investment banks, and hedge funds. He received a bachelor's in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University.

John Hack

Managing Director,
Head of Technical Relationship Management and Product Consulting
Bio+

John Hack is a Managing Director and the Head of the Technical Relationship Management and Product Consulting groups for Arcesium. In this role, John is responsible for client integration, technical professional services, and product support.

Prior to joining Arcesium, John was a Vice President with the D. E. Shaw group for 7 years, where he was responsible for the development of significant portions of the intellectual property that is now part of Arcesium. Earlier in his career, John was a Technical Project Manager with Random Walk Computing, which was acquired by Accenture in 2006.

John earned a BSE in electrical and computer engineering from Duke University, with a second major in computer science.

Laurel Hesch

Senior Vice President,
Relationship Manager
Bio+

Laurel Hesch is a Senior Vice President and Relationship Manager for Arcesium.

Prior to the formation of Arcesium, Laurel spent 11 years with the D. E. Shaw group in roles within the firm's Treasury, Finance, and Operations departments. She also served as Head of Management Reporting for the D. E. Shaw group.

She graduated magna cum laude from Tufts University with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering.

Maureen Knoblauch

Senior Vice President,
Services Relationship Manager
Bio+

Maureen Knoblauch is a Senior Vice President and a Services Relationship Manager for Arcesium.

Prior to the formation of Arcesium, Maureen spent 17 years with the D. E. Shaw group as a Vice President in the firm's Finance and Operations department.

Maureen earned a bachelor's degree in psychology and a minor in business administration from the University of Delaware.

Ranvijay Lamba

Managing Director,
Country Head, India
Bio+

Ranvijay Lamba is a Managing Director and the Country Head for Arcesium India.

Ranvijay was formerly the Head of Technology for the India office and was responsible for building our technology products and establishing talented software teams. His 15 years at the D. E. Shaw group have given him a strong understanding of the securities industry and helped him develop expertise in middle-and back-office processes.

David Nable

Managing Director,
Head of Client and Partner Development
Bio+

David Nable is a Managing Director and Head of Client and Partner Development for Arcesium.

In this role, David is responsible for new business initiatives, marketing, analyst and consultant relations, external communications, product definition, and client relationship management. Prior to joining Arcesium, David was the Head of U.S. Sales and a member of the global operating committee for Credit Suisse Prime Fund Services, a fund services business that was acquired by BNP Paribas. Earlier, David spent nine years at Goldman Sachs in sales and client management roles across both the Prime Brokerage and Fund Administration businesses.

David earned a bachelor's degree in finance from the University of Maryland, College Park and is a CFA Charterholder.

Regional Leadership

Vimal Bhalodia

Senior Vice President,
Technology
Bio+

Vimal Bhalodia is a Senior Vice President for Technology for Arcesium. In this role, Vimal is responsible for overseeing Arcesium’s application development and platform integration.

Prior to joining Arcesium Vimal was the CTO for People.co, a recruiting technology startup, and the COO of Prior Knowledge, data science and machine learning startup. He also worked in Middle and Back Office technology at Bridgewater Associates.

Vimal holds an MEng in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT and an MBA from University of Michigan Ross School of Business.

Alex Dobson

Senior Vice President,
Services Relationship Manager
Bio+

Alex Dobson is a Senior Vice President and Services Relationship Manager for Arcesium.

Prior to the formation of Arcesium, Alex was a Vice President with the D. E. Shaw group for 8 years where he led a trade accounting and operations team supporting the macro and liquid alternative trading desks.

He graduated with honors from Pennsylvania State University with bachelor’s degrees in finance and economics.

Dirk Fole

Senior Vice President,
Services Relationship Manager
Bio+

Dirk J. Fole is a SVP and Services Relationship Manager for Arcesium. In this role, Dirk is responsible for managing the relationship between our clients and the services teams that support them on a day to day basis. Dirk also takes an active role in managing the valuation, middle office and wire operation teams.

Prior to joining Arcesium, Dirk was a Vice President in the financial operations group for the D. E. Shaw group for 10 years focusing on valuations along with accounting and operations support across a number of asset classes, notably private equity and options. Earlier Dirk served as the assistant controller for Zimmer Lucas Partners and also spent 2 years at PriceWaterhouseCoopers as an auditor in the alternative asset management division.

Dirk graduated cum laude with a Bachelor’s Degree in accounting from Villanova University and has earned his CPA.

Kyle George

Senior Vice President,
Head of Infrastructure
Bio+

Kyle George is a Senior Vice President and the Head of Infrastructure for Arcesium. In this role, Kyle is responsible for all aspects of Arcesium's global infrastructure including AWS, Linux, Windows, storage, connectivity, SDLC, critical infra, automation, reliability engineering (SRE), and security engineering.

Prior to the formation of Arcesium, Kyle spent a year with the D. E. Shaw Group working on infrastructure engineering, including how Arcesium would launch utilizing the AWS platform. Prior to joining the D. E. Shaw Group, Kyle spent 6 years at Goldman Sachs in Technology Infrastructure focusing on private cloud, infrastructure automation, and automated configuration management of many thousands of Linux systems. Earlier, Kyle wrote business intelligence and reporting software for corporations in Atlanta.

Kyle holds a M.S. degree in Information Security and a B.S. degree with High Honor in Computer Science, both from Georgia Tech.

Tom Leavey

Senior Vice President,
Head of Information Security
Bio+

Tom is a Senior Vice President and Head of Information Security for Arcesium. In this role, he is responsible for Arcesium's security program including platform security, enterprise security, security audit, and compliance.

Tom has 15 years' experience helping to secure enterprises of all shapes and sizes. In a consulting capacity, he has interfaced with a multitude of companies in financial services, pharmaceutical, and ecommerce industries to review security controls and identify weaknesses for improvement. Prior to joining Arcesium, Tom was a security specialist with the D. E. Shaw Group.

Tom graduated with honors from Rochester Institute of Technology with a bachelor's degree in Computer Science.

Libby Vanderkaay

Senior Vice President,
Relationship Manager
Bio+

Elizabeth (Libby) Vanderkaay is a Senior Vice President and Relationship Manager for Arcesium. In this role, Libby is responsible for the commercial aspect of Arcesium’s client relationships.

Prior to joining Arcesium, Libby was Vice President of Client Implementation at Northern Trust Hedge Fund Services, which she joined through the acquisition of Citadel subsidiary Omnium LLC. Earlier, Libby spent 4 years at Bank of America Merrill Lynch designing credit derivative trading technology.

Libby earned a bachelor’s degree in Industrial and Operations Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Ramu Annadanam

Director, Technology
Bio+

Ramu Annadanam is responsible for development and delivery of Trade and Security Management, Reference Data Maintenance, Corporate Actions, Fund and Investor Accounting, Investor CMS, and Financial Reporting products.

During his 11 years at the D. E. Shaw group's office in Hyderabad, he was responsible for development and delivery of various products used in the middle-and-back-office operations. He has over 14 years of experience in the technology space.

Premal Desai

Co-Head of Services,
India
Bio+

Premal Desai co-heads the Services group at Arcesium India. Premal is responsible for client onboarding and the overall management and growth of the Services function.

He managed Trade Accounting & Operations and Middle Office at the D. E. Shaw group's office in Hyderabad. He has extensive and diverse experience in global financial markets and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

Ramesh Javvaji

Director, Technology
Bio+

Ramesh Javvaji is responsible for the development and delivery of our Treasury, Pricing, and Compliance products along with overseeing our Infrastructure, Databases, and Support Engineering.

During his 9 years at the D. E. Shaw group's office in Hyderabad, he was responsible for development and delivery of Treasury, Pricing, and Compliance related products. He has over 15 years of experience in the technology space building teams and delivering products.

Yogesh Sharma

Director, Technology
Bio+

Yogesh Sharma is responsible for development and delivery of Portfolio-Accounting, General Ledger, Reconcilers, Counterparty Connectivity, Tax, and Management Company Accounting products, along with Quality Assurance. During his 7 years at the D. E. Shaw group's office in Hyderabad, he worked on Reconciliation, Counterparty Connectivity and automation of month-end workflow for our Services group. He has over 15 years of experience in various back office technology areas.

Sriram S.R.

Head of Human Capital, India
Bio+

Sriram S. R. manages the entire gamut of Human Capital activities at Arcesium India. Sriram has over 19 years of experience and his areas of expertise include influencing people strategy, establishing world-class people processes, improving communication effectiveness, delivering on staffing needs, and enhancing employee experience. He has experience with new business set-up, HR Consulting, and HR Strategy implementation apart from the traditional domains.

Pavani Velpucherla

Head of Finance, India
Bio+

Pavani Velpucherla manages the Finance function and is responsible for accounting operations, management reporting, budgeting & forecasting, and compensation management. She has over 16 years of experience, 7 of which were with the D. E. Shaw group. She has experience in setting up financial planning processes for supporting business decisions, financial modeling, and overall strategic financial management.

Chris Barrow

Head of Business Development, Europe
Bio+

Chris is responsible for leading Arcesium's growth in Europe. He has over 20 years of experience in law, banking, and financial technology. Chris started his career as a lawyer, specialising in banking and capital markets, and then moved into business development roles focusing on hedge funds and asset managers. He has run sales globally for Nomura and HSBC prime services and led financial technology businesses at Brown Brothers Harriman and ENSO Financial Analytics. At HSBC, Chris was also head of Diversity & Inclusion in the U.K.

Chris graduated from Southampton University with a BSc (Hons) in Politics and International Relations and is a qualified Solicitor.