Team OmniScience
In investing the key aspects that an investment team should focus on are a robust investment philosophy, a temperament which doesn't get impacted by market action, and top-level analytical and imaginative capabilities. The team needs to have a scientific mindset which emphasizes fundamental first principles and use of logic and analytical reasoning to derive further principles from these, and imaginative capabilities to develop practical and usable frameworks, processes and solutions to address investment objectives.
Deep research and insights, based on an analysis of nearly 100 years of investment research and practice, into what has worked (and not worked) in investing and why, both, practitioner-driven as well as academic-driven, has led the team to develop the unique Scientific Investing Philosophy and Framework.
The team is led by Dr. Vikas V Gupta who provides the philosophical foundation for the Scientific Investing Framework. He heads the invest strategy function and works with the portfolio management team to oversee the current portfolios. He also supervises the research function and works with the research team to develop new investment strategies.
Ashwini Shami leads the portfolio management and manages the client portfolios. Varun Sood leads the research on developing and maintaining the Scientific Investing research platform which generates the existing and new investment strategies.
Dr. Vikas V. Gupta: CEO & Chief Investment Strategist
Vikas founded OmniScience Capital to provide a scientific approach to equity investments in Global & Indian stock markets. The application of 100+yrs of investment research to investment management over multiple market cycles led him to the insight that over the long term “Chasing Alpha leads to Risks and Chasing Safety leads to Alpha”. This OmniInsight is the crux of Scientific Investing.
At an earlier multi-asset class firm, with a vision of operating in the global markets, he incubated the global listed equity vertical by obtaining investment management licenses from SEC (USA), SEBI (India), FSC (Mauritius) and applying for UCITS CSSF (Lux) with a view to distribute across US, EU, UK, Middle East and East Asia. The firm won international awards and rankings, including the #1 long bias equity manager for 2014 across 11000+ hedge funds by Preqin.
He led discussions with NYSE, NASDAQ, FTSE & Thomson Reuters etc. to offer jointly developed products (Indexes, ETFs, UCITS) with asset managers such as Blackrock (iShares), Invesco PowerShares , Janus Capital, VelocityShares) among others.
He holds a B.Tech (IIT Bombay), MS & Doctorate (Columbia University, New York). He has also served as a Scientist & Professor at University of California and IIT Kharagpur respectively.
Vikas is regularly quoted & interviewed and invited to contribute in global, US & Indian publications, such as, Seeking Alpha, Moneycontrol , Mint, Economic Times, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Forbes, TheStreet, Gulf News, CNBC, ET Now, Channel News Asia & others.
Ashwini Shami: Executive Vice President & Portfolio Manager
Ashwini co founded OmniScience Capital to bring Scientific Investing to global markets. The “Science of Alpha from Safety” is part of his investment DNA germinating early in his career in the IFFCO Tokio Actuarial team in the form of “risk consciousness”
At his previous firm, he led a 7 member team working closely with NYSE and Reuters globally launching 12 strategies providing exposure to US, EU, UK & Japan across large, mid & small cap. He set up the one of the first Indian US SEC registered global money managers on the Interactive Brokers platform.
Earlier, at Goldman Sachs, he focused on actionable research. His team is credited for the breakup of big pharma to unlock value, with Pfizer spinning out animal health & baby formula verticals. He also covered Merck, J&J, Abbott, Bristol Meyers & global generics such as Teva & Mylan
He holds an MBA (IIM Lucknow & Toulouse Business School, France) & B.Tech. from IIT Bombay.
Varun Sood: Vice President – Quantitative Research
Varun co founded OmniScience Capital with a view to apply Scientific Investing across US, EU, UK & India, analysing nearly 5000 firms & creating SuperNormal portfolios.
At an earlier firm he co developed multiple global investment strategies for developed & emerging markets. He worked with NYSE & Reuters to implement these live strategies on their platforms.
Previously at Trefis , he was responsible for covering US Tech and Defense stocks (Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Google, Amazon, etc.). He wrote over 200 company & sector specific articles published and syndicated to international publications such as Forbes & E Trade: and initiated coverage for major tech IPOs such as Facebook & Groupon. He had stints at one of the largest Vietnamese conglomerates, Masan Group and ING Hong Kong.
He has a B.Tech. (IIT Roorkee) and MBA (IIM Bangalore & EDHEC France).