Akbar Poonawala

CFA, MBA, B.Com.

Akbar Poonawala is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Pivot Investment Partners. 

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He serves on the boards of Cape Analytics, Droit Financial Technologies, Cowbell Cyber, Snapsheet, OpenFin, Earnest Research, OneVest (Canada), and Jubilee Holdings (Kenya); having previously served on the Boards of Bold Penguin, dv01, and DCB Bank (India). 

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Akbar was formerly MD and the Head of the Americas of Deutsche Bank Global Transaction Banking leading the growth of this business to over $1 billion of revenues in Cash Management, Trade Finance, and Trust & Securities Services targeting both Corporate and Financial Institutions clients throughout the Americas. Previously, he built the Global Equity Services business, which included Depositary Receipts, Registrar, and Post-IPO Services, into a market-leading business across ten international locations with a more than five-fold increase in revenues and over 900 Corporate and Financial Institutions clients. 

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Akbar was also a member of the Deutsche Bank Americas Regional Executive Committee, the GTB Global Executive Committee, and the DB Americas Diversity Committee. Akbar also served on the Board of Directors of Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation. 

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Akbar currently sits on the Investment Banking Advisory Board of Rosenblatt Securities.

Akbar is a Chartered Financial Analyst and graduated Beta Gamma Sigma with an MBA in Finance from New York University�s Stern School of Business, and in the top 1% of his class with a Master of Business Administration in Marketing and an undergraduate degree in Advanced Accounting from Poona University in India.

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Outside of his role at Pivot, Akbar serves as the Chairman of the Aga Khan Economic Planning Board for the United States, Chairman of the American Ismaili Chamber of Commerce Board since July 2015.