The world of Wall Street investment banking is notoriously difficult to break into. Every year, students and young professionals from all over the country spend time building out more robust resumes and tweaking cover letters, hoping to get a foot in the door. For some, it seems to come naturally, while others struggle to find their way. For Darshil Shah, there was another hurdle standing in his way: the fact that he was from, and resided in a country very far from Wall Street – India.
After graduating from Gujarat University in Ahmedabad, India with a bachelor's degree in commerce, Darshil went on to work for Credit Suisse, a prominent investment banking firm. With both his CPA and CFA in hand, Darshil was ready for everything. There, though fairly new to the industry, Darshil had important roles on large projects involving leading global corporations. While at Credit Suisse working on financial advisory roles, Darshil started getting more and more interested into the world of investing and private equity and he found exactly that in his next role.
Making the switch to Amplus Capital helped add a well-rounded perspective to his career journey. At a boutique real estate private equity firm, Darshil was responsible for raising funds, project management, and liaising with senior leaders and other project stakeholders. This gave him exposure to management, and investing discipline, stretched his limits, and truly got him ready for Wall Street. It was the next move that he would make that would launch Darshil across the ocean, to the US, and eventually, onto Wall Street.
He decided to pursue an MBA at Kellogg School of Business which is a top rated MBA program in the world. The program paired seamlessly with his professional experience, and after graduating, Darshil landed a job at the firm he would build his career, Evercore, a leading independent investment banking firm.
Starting as a generalist M&A associate gave him the opportunity to try out different niches at the firm before specializing in Alternative Capital and SPAC, or, Special Purpose Acquisition Company M&A. Within 3 years, Darshil played a critical role in at least 10 M&A deals that totaled more than $60 billion in transaction value. He also was a part of the team that coordinated and provided advisory services to Grab in the $40 billion merger with Altimeter Growth Capital. This was the largest SPAC merger and largest PIPE raise in global history.
Darshil has become an expert in Alternative Capital and SPAC mergers and acquisitions and is often part of some of the most important deals Evercore completes. He was part of the team that provided financial guidance to Apollo's SPAC that merged with Amex Global Business Travel, ultimately building the largest public travel management company in the world.
His impact on Wall Street goes much further than the M&A deals at Evercore. In fact, Darshil was selected to be part of a team of professionals that created CAPS, an innovative structure that better aligns the interests of all stakeholders.
Finance, and more specifically investment banking, requires a unique combination of innovation, attention to detail, and strategy, but Darshil has always exhibited the perfect combination. His success in the industry didn't come easy; he worked hard, took risks, and invested in himself along the way. By the looks of it, it is all paying off in the end.
