From founding to present

About Us

Our Founder

E.S.P. Das

Founder

The late Eshwar S. Purandar Das (1944 – 2018) was the founder of Das & Co and Landmark Banyan Real Estate Advisors.

During a 40 year career on Wall Street, including a decade-long tenure as Vice Chairman of Investment Banking at Merrill Lynch, Mr. Das advised many of America’s largest companies, as well as investors around the globe.

Mr. Das served as an Advisory Director to Harvard University’s Asian Studies department and as President of the E.S.P. Das Education Foundation, a philanthropic organization that continues to actively support educational initiatives worldwide.

Mr. Das also served as a Trustee of Brown University from 1993-1999 and was a Council Member on Brown’s India Advisory Council.

He attended the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur and received a Ph.D. in Engineering from Brown University as well as an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago.

Our Team

Kuntala Das

President

Sriram Das

Managing Director

Bharat Das

Managing Director

Gopal Das

Managing Director

Steven Shapiro

Vice President

Angela Li

Budget Analyst

Amit Patel

Finance Director

Barry Marcus

Investment Associate

Harish Jayaram

Suryadesh Energy Pvt Ltd

Olga Franco

Associate

Venkat Chandolu

Finance Manager

Suryaprakash Jayaramu

Project Manager

Siram Das, Managing Director

Sriram is a Managing Director of Das & Co since 2010, with responsibility for new business development and investment opportunities. He is also co-founder of portfolio companies Suryadesh Energy Pvt Ltd (India) & Zonnestraal Energie B.V. (Netherlands), and serves as head of Landmark Banyan Real Estate Advisors LLC, which advises the Landmark and Banyan Real Estate Funds.

In 2006 Sriram established a feature film production company, Das Films. As executive producer Sriram was responsible for several feature films that have been selected for film festivals such as the Sundance and Tribeca Film Festival.

Prior to forming Das Films, Sriram worked at Merrill Lynch. While there, he served large Canadian and Latin American institutions. Sriram started his career as the cofounder of QPlus Networks in 2000. He was Executive Director of Business Development, responsible for writing their business plan, playing a crucial role in fundraising and managing their Italian subsidiary.

Sriram graduated from Harvard University with an A.B. in Social Studies. He also earned an M.B.A. in Finance and Strategy from Yale University.

Bharat Das, Managing Director

Bharat joined the Das & Co. team in 2015 as Managing Director to look at public markets and international opportunities. He is also a co-founder of Pippin Title, a portfolio company in the proptech space, and leads Das & Co’s technology ventures.

Before this, Bharat was portfolio manager and vice president at the Harvard Management Company, which manages the university’s $40bn endowment. Bharat focused on cross-asset opportunities in commodities, equity derivative and fixed income markets. Previously, Bharat also worked for Goldman Sachs in Investment Banking and at New Vernon Capital.

Bharat serves as a board member of SAYA, an educational non-profit in New York.

Bharat received his A.B. in Physics from Harvard University and his M.B.A. from Chicago Booth

Gopal Das, Managing Director

Gopal joined Das & Co. in 2015 as Managing Director, focused on a variety of private market opportunities.In Das & Co.’s portfolio, Gopal is the Founder, Chairman, and CEO of Apex Resources Ltd., Co-Founder and Member of the Board of Directors of Safehouse Technologies, the Managing Director of KHMDL, Member of the Board of Directors of April Labs, and a Senior Advisor to the Chairman of the Board at Orthogonal Thinker. He has also led investments in Relativity Space, UrLife/Slice Media, and SpaceX.

Gopal received his A.B. in Economics from Brown University and his MSc in Global Management from The London School of Economics and Political Science. In 2009, Gopal directed and produced the award winning documentary “Ayurveda: Otherwise No Yoga.”

Steven Shapiro, Managing Director

Steven joined the executive team at Das & Co. in 2011, actively participating in the venture’s new business endeavors. Steven is also Vice President of Landmark Banyan Real Estate Advisors LLC and is responsible for all areas of operations for the firm.

Steven joined Das Films in 2007, where he continues to serve as the Head of Production, overseeing the budgeting, union contracts, development financing, and all production for the company’s robust slate of over twenty feature film projects, mostly based on popular literary properties.

Steven earned a Bachelor’s of Science degree and Dean’s List accolades from Syracuse University, and an MBA in Finance from New York University, where he served as Vice President of the Stern Student Corporation, and was a Dean’s Leadership Award recipient. He currently lives in New York City, where he is also an investing partner and contributing manager of a successful food and beverage establishment.

Angela Li, Budget Analyst

Angela joined Das & Co in 2019 as Budget Analyst.

Angela previously worked for NYC Parks and Recreation Department as the purchasing liaison, responsible for budget planning, vendor management and borough procurement. She also supervised office operations to assure smooth work flow. In her leisure time, she takes classes in Spanish, tango and public speaking. She is now working to become a CPA as well.

Angela received her masters degree in international relations from NYU.

Amit Patel, Finance Director

Joined Das & Co. team in 2018 as Financial Controller. He is responsible for preparing financial models, projections and investor decks for all global businesses. He also serves as Finance Director for Suryadesh Energy Pvt Ltd (India) & Zonnestraal Energie B.V. (Netherlands)

Amit is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA). He graduated from the University of Toronto with a concentration in Business Management.

Barry Marcus, Investment Associate

Barry joined the Das & Co. team in 2019 as Investment Associate to look at public markets and other investment opportunities.

Barry has a strong background in cross market fundamental & event driven investment strategies. Prior to Das & Co., Barry held trading and analysis roles at large multinationals and trading firms focused on commodities across the energy, agriculture and metals sectors.

Barry received his BA from Providence College in Business Management.

Harish Jayaram

Harish is co-founder of portfolio companies Suryadesh Energy Pvt Ltd (India) & Zonnestraal Energie B.V. (Netherlands)

Harish has more than 20+ years experience in energy, manufacturing & telecommunication. He was previously the Global Head of Business Process Services at SunEdison covering North America, Europe & Asia. He implemented a delivery platform for solar business process services across the globe.

Harish holds an MS in Industrial Engineering from the University of Oklahoma, and an MBA from Oklahoma City University. In addition, he is a Certified PMP® and Operational Process Excellence Black Belt

Olga Franco

Olga joined Das & Co. in 2011. Between 2009 and 2011, she was an Executive Assistant to the Chairman of Unison Technologies, Inc., a software development company, and Intermedia Inc., a global leader in cloud services and the world’s largest Microsoft Exchange hosting provider.

A former runway model, Olga designed an haute couture collection, which was presented at 2011 Couture Fashion Week at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York. While in Russia, Olga earned a Bachelor’s Degree in marketing from University of Economics and Management, and in 2012 she successfully completed the Business Certificate Program at Columbia University working towards an MBA.

Venkat Chandolu, Finance Manager

Venkat joined the Das & Co. team in 2020. He is responsible for maintaining books of accounts and preparing financials for all Das & Co. global entities. He is a Qualified Chartered Accountant and graduate in commerce with majors in Accountancy & Finance from I.G.N.O.U. He is an experienced financial & accountancy professional with 10 years of experience in various industries including manufacturing, trading, saas & e-commerce.

Suryaprakash Jayaramu, Project Manager

Suryaprakash Jayaramu joined Das & Co in 2023 as Project Manager. 
 
Mr. Jayaramu has over 30 years of experience in strategy, design and execution.  He previously worked in several roles in the US at multinationals Amgen, Guidant and Abbott Labs, where he handled technology development and rollout, as well as the commissioning and building of manufacturing and research facilities.  A trained engineer, he has been involved in various aspects of large scale real estate and infrastructure development, in both the US as well as India.
 
Mr. Jayaramu received his MBA from Northwest Missouri State University, and his BE in Civil Engineering from Bangalore University.