People - Alphabeta

Kirthi Ramakrishnan

President and CEO

Based in NYC, Kirthi co-founded ALPHABETA and sets the strategic vision for the platform. With over 20 years in financial engineering and technology, he has developed the original visual taxonomy, the pedagogical methods, and the financial modeling within the platform. Previously, he led the Emerging Business Program and the buy side consulting practice at Cognizant, ran US business development and consulting at Financial Models, and developed quantitative credit risk and mortgage pricing models for BBVA Bancomer. He has a B.Engg from Anna University and an MBA from Tulane University.
Sathya Palaniappan

Head of Product Management

Based in Chennai, Sathya oversees product management, business analysis, quality assurance and data management on the ALPHABETA suite of products. He is responsible for overall growth and client satisfaction for the India and APAC markets. Previously at Cognizant, he spent 15 years in capital markets strategy and transformation consulting for UBS, Franklin Templeton, BNY Mellon, Wells Fargo, Citi, RBC, Fidelity, Northern Trust, State Street, World Bank, Capital Group, Dreyfus, ABN Amro, Standard Chartered Bank and Qatar National Bank. Prior to that, he held risk management and investment operations positions at Citicorp, HDFC Mutual Fund, and Sundaram Mutual Fund. With a consistent track record of thought leadership and publishing, Sathya is an ICAI-qualified Chartered Accountant and a GARP-certified Financial Risk Manager.
Joe Kowalski

Lead UX Designer

Working out of his Brooklyn studio, Joe is instrumental in the visual and interactive design of the ALPHABETA products. Combining his natural creativity with a practical eye to user workflow, his designs reflect a minimalist and understated flair. Over the last 15 years as a graphic designer at multiple game studios, his credits include Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Brutal Legend, and numerous titles for Double Fine. His personal work has been featured in Babycastles Gallery, Electric Literature, Boing Boing, and Rooftop Films. Joe graduated from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in 2003.
Varun Mundra

Head of Business Development, India

Based in Mumbai, Varun runs business development in India across ALPHABETA products, targeting online education platforms, stock exchanges, financial services companies, and educational institutions. He has over 10 years of B2B and B2C sales, product, and digital marketing experience in the technology and construction sectors at Courses.ninja, roadtonaukri, and Rupam Marbles. He has an MBA from SP Jain Institute of Management and an MIB from IESEG (France).
Namasivayam Ravi

Manager, Data Analytics and Quality Assurance

Namasivayam oversees data analytics and quality assurance for ALPHABETA. He is a seasoned professional with experience at Smart Advisors, Probe Equity research, and Scope International. He has experience with business planning, fund raising, strategy building, financial modeling, valuation, fund management, and analytics. He has received multiple degrees, including an MS in business analytics from the State University of New York, an MBA with a focus on finance from Amrita University, and a B.Tech with a focus on IT from Anna University.
Sundara Nagarajan

Chief Operating Officer, India and APAC

Sundar oversees the India operations and is responsible for finance, administration, HR, legal, and audit functions. He also oversees our industry and academic outreach and partnership programs for the APAC region. With over 27 years of prior technology experience, he was the Head of IT Outsourcing for Lloyds Banking Group in India and multiple strategy and operational leadership positions across geographies at Cognizant. He has an MBA from the SP Jain Institute of Management.
Divya Gosain

Senior Manager, Product Management

Based in Delhi NCR, Divya is responsible for financial modelling, research and product management initiatives across multiple TOPXIGHT companies. She has over 8 years of experience in financial services and information technology across merger and combination analyses, proprietary financial analysis, asset management and post trade processing. Divya has previously worked with Cognizant Business Consulting (Capital Markets) and J.P. Morgan Investment Banking (NA Energy). Digital disruptions in financial services is her focus area of interest. She is an MBA (Finance) from Management Development Institute and a Manufacturing and Automation Engineer from Delhi University.
Sam Noon

Research Associate

Expecting to graduate from Tulane University in 2019 with finance and management degrees, Sam has been working at TOPXIGHT LA since Jan 2017 on various projects. He currently runs the social media marketing and student evangelization efforts for ALPHABETA Guide and is deeply involved in automated testing and financial analysis across projects. He has been a TA for Business Analytics at the AB Freeman School of Business, where he realized his passion for research and learning using data driven strategies. He has also been a supervisor for Tulane Athletic Marketing performing market research and SWOT analysis.
Umang Koul

Research Analyst

Umang joined as our full time employee after completing his summer intership with Alphabeta. He is working as an Analyst for Alphabeta. He contributes in the Product Development, Quality Assurance and Data Management verticals for Alphabeta. He holds a Bachelors of Engineering from University of Pune and a MBA(Finance) from NL Dalmia, Mumbai. He is an avid follower of global capital markets and plays a critical role for Research and Development work at Alphabeta.

Siva Visveswaran

Chief Technology Officer

Siva is a visionary with a track record of predicting technology adoption trends over the last 20 years. He is the driving force behind many of the ALPHABETA foundational themes and was prescient in the influence of gaming, data visualization and active learning on serious business. As CTO, he influences the technology selection and architecture design for the platform and sets the agenda for expansion into newer computing paradigms like voice input and augmented reality. Previously with Cognizant, PwC, IBM, and TCS, he holds a BS from BITS Pilani, an MS from Wayne State University, and an MA from the University of Delaware
Carlos Alexandre Lopes

Lead Developer / DevOps and Systems Manager

Carlos Lopes is a veteran systems analyst and develops and maintains the server environment and back end development for ALPHABETA League. Impressively, Carlos started to code in 1988 at the early age of 6 on his old IBM XT using BASIC. Carlos joined TOPXIGHT as the lead backend developer, DevOps engineer, server administrator and systems analyst. Previously, he worked as a freelance developer and then joined UOL (Universe Online). At UOL, Carlos worked in the backend development of a payment gateway for online gaming companies such as Riot, EA, and Valve. Besides a developer, Carlos became the Scrum Master of a little team of developers, organizing, helping and planning the team tasks.
Dr. Joaquin Trigueros

Head Of Quantitative Research

Dr. Joaquin Trigueros is a seasoned “quant” having spent the last 17 years in high performance trading environments at Greenwich Capital, JP Morgan, and Capula Global. He was the winner of the first D.E. Shaw Best Paper Award at the first annual CIFEr conference in 1997 for his pioneering research in genetic algorithms and programming applied to predictive variable selection in accounting and finance. Among his various research responsibilities were the overseeing of the propriety PRIMUS risk engine and the development of the trading decision making applications of the Proprietary Positioning Business (PPB) at JP Morgan. Dr. Trigueros earned his Ph.D. in accounting and finance from Tulane University in May 2000.
Ivan Peska

2D/3D Artist and Game Developer

Ivan Peska is a 2D/3D game artist and game developer with several published mobile titles under his belt, some of them self-published. His creative endeavors do not end here - he is also an avid music producer, working in several styles and genres. He has held various roles in creative industries during his ten-year career.
Laurent Quevedo

Technical Director of VOX Game Studio

Laurent is best described as a savant and legend has it that he started professional programming after just one course in computer science. Starting as a programmer in ALPHABETA, he is now the development lead managing a fantastic group of young programmers. He has been working with ALPHABETA since its infancy and now has also taken on the role of guiding its architecture.
Diego Francke

Project Manager and Information Officer

Diego coordinates technology projects across TOPXIGHT companies with teams in 4 continents. In addition, he manages internal communications, workflow, and documentation across the incubator. He spent four years coordinating a technology department of a pre-university course in Brazil, before joining the gaming industry and mobile apps. He has eight years of team and project management experiences. After working as a developer, he went back to team organization, working as a project manager. Diego is also a coordinator and co-founder of an NGO that takes care of homeless dogs and cats since 2009.

Dr. James W. McFarland

Advisor

Dr. McFarland has taught and guided thousands of finance professionals over his 40-year tenure as a professor of finance. He serves an advisor and contributes to our Louisiana operations. He is the longest-serving dean in the history of the Freeman School of Business and is now the Executive Director of Tulane’s Energy Institute. He continues to teach and influence the trajectory of financial education at Tulane. Dr. McFarland also serves on the board of numerous companies including Valmiki Capital, American Indemnity Financial Corporation, Sizeler Property Investors, Petroleum Helicopters, Stewart Enterprises, Newpark Resources, Bureau of Governmental Research, World Trade Center, Metropolitan Crime Commission, and WYES.
Dr. Janna Levin

Advisor

Janna Levin is the Tow Professor of physics and astronomy at Barnard College of Columbia University, and has contributed to an understanding of black holes, the cosmology of extra dimensions, and gravitational waves in the shape of spacetime. She is also director of sciences at Pioneer Works. Her previous books include How the Universe Got Its Spots and a novel, A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines, which won the PEN/Bingham Prize. She was recently named a Guggenheim Fellow. Her latest book, Black Hole Blues and Other Songs from Outer Space, is the inside story on the discovery of the century: the sound of spacetime ringing from the collision of two black hole over a billion years ago. She has a BA in Physics and Astronomy from Barnard College and a Ph.D in Physics from MIT.
Paul Atkins

Advisor

Paul Atkins is chief executive of Patomak Global Partners, LLC, a financial services consultancy that provides industry and regulatory expertise. He regularly serves as an independent compliance consultant and a court-appointed monitor in settlements involving the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. He has served as co-chair of the Token Alliance, an initiative of the Chamber of Digital Commerce. Prior to founding Patomak, from July 2002 to August 2008, Mr. Atkins served as a Commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He was on Congressional Oversight Panel for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Mr. Atkins received his A.B., summa cum laude, from Wofford College and his J.D. from Vanderbilt University School of Law.
Peggy Babin

Managing Director - TOPXIGHT LA

Peggy Babin is the CEO for Valmiki 504 LLC, the Louisiana venture capital subsidiary of the Valmiki Capital Management LP and the General Partner to the Fund. She joined Valmiki recently to start up the office and its Louisiana operations and is in charge of academic programs and outreach for ALPHABETA. Prior to that, she served as the Associate Dean at the A.B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University for 17 years. She has been a leader in management in academia, having managed career services, external relations, alumni affairs, fundraising, and other departments for the business school in that period. Ms. Babin came to the Freeman School from LL&E where she spent almost two decades in a number of positions with the company, ending as manager of natural of natural gas trading generating annual revenues in excess of $350 million.
Harish Kumar

Advisor

Dr. Kumar has been teaching at Amrita School of Business for the past year as a visiting Professor. He was previously an investment professional in Wall Street in New York where he spent 15 years managing $10 billion in global equities and alternative equity investment strategies at Madison Square, ING Investment Management, and Aeltus Investment Management, Dr. Kumar received a Ph.D. and M.Phil. from the Graduate School of Business at Columbia University, a Masters from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and a Bachelors degree from Birla Institute of Technology and Science in Pilani, India in Mechanical Engineering. Dr. Kumar is a CFA charter holder
Rimpal Chawla

Advisor

Based in Hyderabad, India, Rimpal is the founder and CEO of Anitya Ventures and co-founder of the Vasisth Relative Value Fund. Prior to that he spent over 20 years in asset, wealth and alternative investment management in various roles at Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, and Citi. He also is a mentor, advisor, and investor in early stage companies in India and abroad. He is Chartered Accountant ad did his apprenticeship at AF Ferguson and Co.
Ashish Bhardwaj

Advisor

With various roles at the Graduate Management Admissions Council, Ashish oversees business in APAC, Middle East & Africa, which comprise some of their largest and fastest growing market. Prior to that he spent over a decade in line and staff positions at Temasek and Citi. He worked in an eLearning start up funded by NewsCorp, Chrysalis Capital and IFC that was later acquired by NIIT. Ashish is passionate about education and its impact as a game changer for personal, professional, social and national growth. His interests include blogging about travel and avidly following the ‘disruptive’ impact of new technologies. Ashish has a BE from NIT, Raipur and an MBA from FMS Delhi
Dr. Vikram Kuriyan

Advisor

Dr. Kuriyan has been an advisor and active contributor through video lectures within ALPHABETA Guide. He is Chairman of GWA Investment Advisors and the Director of the Investments Laboratory at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad. He has spent over 25 years in quantitative research at Bank of America, Columbia Asset Management, Merrill Lynch. He has a BS from MIT and a PhD from Harvard.
Rajesh Madhavan

Advisor

Based in Bangalore, Rajesh Madhavan is an adjunct professor at NMIMS –Bangalore and visiting Professor at Indian Institute of Management – Rohtak and other top tier B-Schools in India in the area of Finance. In his consulting role, he has been involved in potential acquisition ideas, due diligence, valuation and structuring involving venture capital and private equity investments in diverse sectors such as Infrastructure, Information Technology, Marine Exports, Healthcare, Hospitality, Media Solutions. He spent the initial part of his career with consumer discretionary sector, involving financial reporting and fund flow management. Prof Madhavan holds a Master’s in Business Administration in Finance from Philadelphia University, USA (Jefferson) and has done Executive Education program in the area of Private Equity at IE Business School, Spain.
Ravi Suria

Managing Partner, Valmiki Capital Management LP

Representing the lead institutional investor, Ravi takes an active advisory role in governance, corporate development, and strategy across the TOPXIGHT companies. He serves as Chief Investment Officer for Valmiki, and its subsidiaries, overseeing an investment team with similar incubator relationships across industries. Prior to founding Valmiki, he ran multi-billion dollar global macro and equity portfolios with Duquesne Capital Management and Moore Capital. Prior to that, he was an All Star analyst and head of convertibles research at Lehman Brothers and PaineWebber. He has a BE from Annamalai University and an MBA from Tulane University

Kirthi Ramakrishnan

President and CEO

Sathya Palaniappan

Head of Product Management

Joe Kowalski

Lead UX Designer

Varun Mundra

Head of Business Development, India

Namasivayam Ravi

Manager, Data Analytics and Quality Assurance

Sundara Nagarajan

Chief Operating Officer, India and APAC

Divya Gosain

Senior Manager, Product Management

Sam Noon

Research Associate

Umang Koul

Research Analyst

Siva Visveswaran

Chief Technology Officer

Carlos Alexandre Lopes

Lead Developer / DevOps and Systems Manager

Dr. Joaquin Trigueros

Head Of Quantitative Research

Ivan Peska

2D/3D Artist and Game Developer

Laurent Quevedo

Technical Director of VOX Game Studio

Diego Francke

Project Manager and Information Officer

Dr. James W. McFarland

Advisor

Dr. Janna Levin

Advisor

Paul Atkins

Advisor

Peggy Babin

Managing Director - TOPXIGHT LA

Harish Kumar

Advisor

Rimpal Chawla

Advisor

Ashish Bhardwaj

Advisor

Dr. Vikram Kuriyan

Advisor

Rajesh Madhavan

Advisor

Ravi Suria

Managing Partner, Valmiki Capital Management LP