Pradip Shah started IndAsia, a corporate finance and private equity advisory business, in April 1998. IndAsia entered into a joint venture with AMP in 2001 for the private equity business in India. Prior to starting IndAsia, he helped establish the Indocean Fund in 1994 in association with affiliates of Chase Capital Partners and Soros Fund Management.
Before starting Indocean, he was the founder Managing Director of The Credit Rating Information Services of India Limited (CRISIL), India’s first and largest credit rating agency. While at CRISIL, he was instrumental in technology transfer to, and the training of personnel of, Rating Agency Malaysia Berhad and The Israeli Securities Rating Company.
Pradip has been honored in Israel with a garden of a hundred trees in his name.
Prior to founding CRISIL, he assisted in founding Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) in 1977. Before joining HDFC, he was a Project Officer at ICICI Limited. Pradip has also served as a consultant to USAID, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank.
Pradip holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Sydenham College, Bombay. He is a qualified Cost Accountant and ranked first in India in the Chartered Accountancy examinations. He has written articles and given talks in India and in Amsterdam, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Shanghai, Bali, Colombo, Tel Aviv, London, Washington, San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Boston, Perth, Melbourne and Sydney on credit rating, housing finance, capital markets, venture capital and other subjects.
Pradip is currently Chairman of Sonata Software Limited and of Shah Foods Limited and a Director of Asset Reconstruction Company (India) Limited, BASF (India) Limited, Godrej & Boyce Mfg. Limited, Hardy Oil and Gas Limited (U.K.), Grindwell Norton Limited, Panasonic Energy India Company Limited, Patni Computer Systems Limited, Pfizer Limited, and Wartsila India Limited amongst other companies. He is currently the Chairman of the Capital Markets Committee of the Indian Merchants’ Chamber, member of the National Executive Committee of FICCI, was a Director on the Western Region Board of the Reserve Bank of India, was the first Chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industry’s Financial Sector Committee, and has served as a member of the Finance Commission of the State Government of Gujarat; of the Expert Group on Infrastructure Financing appointed by the Government of India; of the Advisory Board of the Bureau of State Public Enterprises, Government of Maharashtra; of the CII National Task Force on Non-Performing Assets; of the SEBI Committee on Venture Capital; of the SIDBI Working Group on Access to Capital Markets for Small Industries; of the Expert Committee, Public Sector Restructuring Programme, Government of Gujarat, and of the Gujarat Infrastructure Development Board Task Force on Policy and Implementation. He is also associated with several non-profit organizations as Trustee/Governing Council Member.
Pradip joined the Board on 10th August, 2004.