Darshil Shah’s Journey From Indian Immigrant To Wall Street Banker

With a population of almost 1.4B, it is truly mind-blowing to imagine the degree of competition amongst the people of India. Establishing a stable career takes more than just a bachelor’s degree and hard work. The reality is that a potential job candidate must go above and beyond to stand out amongst the crowd – complete further education, network to establish valuable connections, and invest their free time in learning about their chosen industry and fine-tuning potentially beneficial add-on skills. 

Darshil Shah is an individual who has done exactly that. Coming from a middle class family, he had access to a quality education and initially completed his Bachelor of Commerce degree at Gujarat University. He then immediately earned both his Chartered Accountancy and CFA certifications, taking those extra steps to get a cutting edge in the financial field. 

From the very beginning, Darshil dreamed of life in the US and imagined what it would be like to work on Wall Street, brushing shoulders with the top financiers of the world. Although the chances were statistically low, it was that dream that fueled the fire of his motivation and determination, and led him to Wall Street. 

Darshil learned the ropes initially as an articled assistant with Deloitte . From there, his career truly kicked off when he joined Credit Suisse, a renowned global investment bank, as an investment banking analyst at their Mumbai location. He worked on some massive global projects involving leading multinational corporations. Although he enjoyed the variety of work, he found himself curious about the opposite side of the coin: buy-side and private equity. 

This curiosity and his relentless drive pushed him to take the leap and, in 2012, he left Credit Suisse to join Amplus Capital Advisors, a boutique real estate focused private equity fund. Although he was already an experienced analyst, this new role allowed him to lean into the beginner mindset to some degree – knowing that as you learn something new, there is freedom to ask questions without the expectation of perfection. His unstoppable thirst for knowledge led him to work intimately with senior management in end-to-end deal evaluations for multiple transactions 

Management was clearly impressed by Darshil and, in 2015, he was promoted from analyst to associate. In this new role, he was able to really shine in portfolio management. Over the next three years, he led monthly project control meetings with the CEOs of leading realty companies across India, evaluating project progress and identifying corrective measures to adhere to their business plans. 

After leveling up so substantially with Amplus, Darshil was finally ready to make the move of his dreams. In 2018, he was accepted into Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Business for his MBA – one of the leading MBA programs in the world. He completed the one year accelerated program with flying colors, after which he secured a position in the US at Evercore, a leading global independent investment banking advisory firm. 

Evercore has been the fertile soil that Darshil always hoped to find, providing him with the opportunities to develop his career in the US, while networking with the biggest names and companies in the world.  

Since then, Darshil has been a key player in multi billion dollar deals. To name a few, he was part of the team that acted as a lead sell-side advisor and private placement agent to Grab in their $40 billion merger with Altimeter Growth Capital, which represented the largest SPAC merger and the largest PIPE raise ($4 billion) in global history. He was also a key member of the team that advised Apollo’s SPAC on its $5 billion merger with Amex Global Business Travel, creating the largest publicly listed travel management company. In addition to working on notable M&A deals, he was hand-picked as part of the team to lead the creation of CAPS™, a new and innovative structure that is designed to better align interests of all stakeholders  

Darshil now has a vast-array of work experience across different industries advising global clients. The accolades that he holds today have transpired through his constant commitment to going above and beyond – a passion that simply cannot be falsified.